Tapes
by Hezashi
Summary: Mimori is having trouble accepting Ryuhou for who he is now. Something tells her he's hiding how he really feels. Will tapes and old memories be able to let the truth out?
1. Faded Memories

Hi dudes and dudettes! Well I finished my Card Captor Sakura story, and now I'm starting this one! So here we go!

Chapter 1- Faded Memories

"Miss Kiryu, I'm urging you to go back to the mainland," Yet again Ryuhou was trying to convince Mimori to leave HOLY. Mimori gave him a stubborn look, then a sad one.

"Why is it always 'Miss Kiryu' with you? You can at least acknowledge an old….an old friend…." She said softly as she walked to her room. Ryuhou didn't react; he just watched her walk away.

She ran into her room and collapsed on her bed. Making sure no one was around; she went to her closet and opened a box full of tapes. She put the tape in her VCR and sat on the couch in her room. She held a pillow in her arms as she watched, glued to the tape.

(_italics _are what's being shown on the tape k?)

It was 7 years ago. _Ryuhou's father and Mimori's father sat at a table at Ryuhou's estate as they were playing card games._

_"Ryuhou," his father smiled, "come play with us!"_

_"Yes sir!" Ryuhou smiled. _Oh how Mimori loved that smile. _Ryuhou took a seat across from his father and grabbed a stack of cards. Mimori walked up and both of their fathers grinned. _

_"Mimori, why don't you play with us as well?"_

_"Yes, I'm sure it would be much more fun with 4 people instead of just 3!" Ryuhou insisted as he pulled a chair out for her. She gladly accepted and sat next to him and grabbed a stack of cards._

_"I don't know how to play…" Mimori said, confused as she looked at her cards._

_"Lemme see," Ryuhou said as he inched forward trying to see her cards in order to help her out._

_"But Ryuhou!" Mimori gave him a shocked look as she held the cards close to her chest defensively. "I'm sure that's cheating!" She looked at her dad, who nodded in response. _

_"No!" Ryuhou insisted, trying to explain his innocence. "I was only trying to-"_

_"Cheater!" Mimori stuck her tongue out at him._

_"I am not!" Ryuhou and Mimori both got up as Ryuhou began chasing Mimori around the table. Both of them were laughing and soon Mimori ran to Ryuhou's mother, who was the one taping everything. Mimori tugged on her dress._

_"Ryuhou's cheating!" She told his mother. His mom gave him a fake surprised look._

_"Ryuhou! How dare you!" She said playfully. Mimori stuck her tongue out at him and he stuck his tongue out at her. Both of them laughed, and Mimori asked to hold the camera._

_"But why do you want to videotape me?" His mom asked._

_"Because you're pretty!" Mimori smiled as she focused the camera on Ryuhou's mom._

_Ryuhou nodded in agreement. "Yah mother you're really pretty!"_

Mimori's eyes were glued to the TV screen; she hadn't even noticed that she was no longer on the couch, but mere inches from the screen. Nor did she notice that Ryuhou had entered her room. "Ryuhou…" She thought to herself out loud. "Why can't you smile like that anymore? Why can't you act like that with me anymore?"

"Where did you get that?" Ryuhou demanded, a stern look on his face.

Mimori snapped out of her thoughts and turned around to face Ryuhou. "Does it really matter?" She asked defensively, remembering what had happened earlier.

"No, I was just wondering why you would hold onto something like that for so long."

"I hold onto the things that matter to me," she said, her eyes softening. Ryuhou was a bit taken aback by her response, but he wouldn't dare let her know it.

"Miss Kiryu, I advise you to stop living in the past and move on. What happened in the past stays in the past."

"Would you stop calling me Miss Kiryu! You know my name, you've known it since we were kids! Why can't you just refer to me as Mimori like you just refer to Scheris as Scheris!" Ryuhou didn't say anything.

"I'll be seeing you around Miss Kiryu." He walked out without another word, leaving Mimori with a sad expression. Just as he was walking out of her room, Straight Cougar happened to be passing by.

"Hm? Hey, what were you doing in Minori's room!" Cougar demanded defensively.

"It's Mimori," Ryuhou corrected him as he walked to his room, leaving Cougar with a shocked and worried look on his face.

"You can't steal away what's already mine!" Cougar shouted to him.

"Whoever said she was yours?" Ryuhou called back. As he entered his room, Ryuhou flipped up the mattresses of his bed to reveal many boxes. For security purposes, he placed many empty boxes under his bed, so as to where if an intruder, such as Mp3228, or formally known as Kazuma, wouldn't be able to find the one box containing the items he held dear. He opened the box just above the middle box to reveal pictures of him in his childhood, old birthday presents from loved ones, including the picture Mimori had drawn him for his birthday 7 years ago. He pulled out 2 pictures: The one Mimori had drawn for him, and a picture of him and Mimori together. He stuck both of them in his back pocket and left his room.

While walking past Mimori's room, he heard a loud crash and ran into her room. "MIMORI!" He shouted.

Mimori gave him a confused look. "What is it Ryuhou?"

"What was that sound?" Ryuhou asked, looking dumbfounded.

"Oh, a bunch of my pots and pans fell. I was unloading the dishwasher and they all came down on me." She smiled as she looked at her arm. Ryuhou had now averted his eyes to her arm as well, only to find a bruise forming from where her dishes hit her. "Were you worried about me?"

"No!" Ryuhou replied quickly. "I just can't have a princess getting hurt is all." Mimori looked a little sad after he said this.

"Is that all you see me as?" He was going to answer when Cougar walked in.

"Miss Minori!" Cougar shouted.

"It's Mimori!" Both Ryuhou and Mimori said simultaneously. Mimori was shocked and Ryuhou looked expressionless.

"Are you ok?" Cougar asked.

"Yes I'm fine," Mimori smiled. "Ryuhou was just helping me."

"No I wasn't," Ryuhou said coldly. Just as Mimori was about to respond, the commander summoned both Mimori and Ryuhou to his office.

"Miss Kiryu, I need you to fill in for Scheris and go with Ryuhou on this mission."

"Why isn't Scheris coming?" Ryuhou asked.

"Scheris is very sick so she needs to rest. Anyways I need you two to go capture some more Native Alters. We have also been notified that Mp3228 is among them, so be careful."

"Kazuma," Both Ryuhou and Mimori said. They looked at each other and headed off on their mission, both of them feeling differently about their assigned orders…


	2. Burning Tears

Well thanks to all of you who reviewed! Anyways heres chapter 2! He he I got a surprise in this chapter!

Chapter 2- Burning Tears

Mimori and Ryuhou hadn't said a word since they left for the mission, until finally Ryuhou broke the silence.

"Are you sure you'll be able to handle it?"

"Handle what?" She asked in pure confusion.

"If I see him there, it's likely we'll fight, and it's even more likely that I'll kill him."

"Kazuma you mean?" Ryuhou nodded. "Why wouldn't I be able to handle that?"

"Don't you have feelings for him?"

Mimori sighed. "We've been over this Ryuhou, I don't have any of those kinds of feelings for him." Another silent tension followed.

"We're here, Miss Kiryu I only ask one thing of you- stay out of my way." She stepped out after him and looked a little sad.

"What does Scheris usually do?" She asked, trying to at least be of some assistance.

"You can't be Scheris, nor can you do what Scheris does," he said coldly. Mimori felt a pain in her heart as she stopped walking and watched him walk farther and farther away.

"Zetsuei!" He shouted and his Alter appeared before him as he went to fight. He got past the first Native Alters easily, but then, through the smoke that he had caused, he appeared. "Kazuma." He muttered through gritted teeth. He said the name as though it were poison. Kazuma grinned.

"Well then I guess it's time we went to battle. SHOCKING FIRST BULLET!" He shouted as more smoke began to appear from their fighting. Mimori couldn't see much as she rounded up the fallen Alters Ryuhou had already fought and beaten. Kazuma, however, and saw her perfectly, and smirked. "Sorry about this lady!" He jumped past Ryuhou and grabbed Mimori by the waist, then placed her in front of him.

"A human shield? Did you have to stoop that low Kazuma?" Kazuma got angry.

"One more word like that and I'll kill her!" Mimori's eyes widened and Ryuhou sweat dropped. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't attack, and if he smarted off one more time Mimori was a goner for sure. "Well I'll just be taking my friends back now!" He ran into the vehicle that Ryuhou and Mimori had used and grabbed the other Alter Users, which Mimori had tied up and used his Shell Bullet to practically fly away, Mimori still in his arms.

"KAZUMA!" Ryuhou shouted. He pounded his fist on the ground, making the ground shake. "ZETSUEI!" He got onto Zetsuei's back and followed them.

Kazuma arrived in an underground cave. And let Mimori go. Mimori huddled into a corner. Kazuma looked at her. "Look I'm sorry but without you he would have gotten me and my friends."

"Why can't you just fight him face to face?" She asked in a soft voice.

"I would have, had it not been for the fact that my friends were there as well. And there was no way I was gonna put them in danger when it could've been avoided."

'He cared about his friends…' She thought, beginning to understand his actions.

Ryuhou, on the other hand, was madder than he had ever been. "How DARE he! THAT COWARD!" He yelled as he arrived at where Kazuma had been hiding. Getting off of Zetsuei, he regained his composure and walked calmly into the cave. The first thing he saw was Mimori huddled into a corner. He immediately rushed over to her. "Mimori are you ok? Did he hurt you?" Mimori turned around to him, and her face lit up instantly. She shook her head happily.

"Well well Ryuhou, it seems you have more feelings for this girl than you're letting on!" Kazuma grinned.

"You've got it wrong, as long as she's in my care however, she's my responsibility!" Mimori's eyes saddened.

Kazuma grinned from ear to ear as he heard this. 'We'll see…' He walked over to them and picked her up. He then kissed her lips, and Mimori's eyes were wide, as were Ryuhou's. Ryuhou and Mimori both pulled Kazuma off of her. Ryuhou hit Kazuma as hard as he could with his fist, a great feeling of satisfaction coming from it. Kazuma's mouth was bleeding and Ryuhou's knuckles were red. Ryuhou managed to smirk even though his fist was hurting.

"No Alter powers? Sounds good to me!" Kazuma hit Ryuhou hard in the stomach and spit came from Ryuhou's mouth. Hit after hit each of them took, each hit becoming stronger as their anger grew. Mimori watched in pain. How could they hate each other so much? This question repeated over and over in her head. Ryuhou wanted to hurt Kazuma to the point of killing him. He had warned Mimori, hadn't he? He looked over at her for a minute, her eyes were welling and yet no tears would fall. "You shouldn't have looked away!" Kazuma smirked and hit Ryuhou, knocking him to the ground.

"Stop!" Mimori had had enough. She used her body as a shield and got between Kazuma and Ryuhou. "Please stop…" Kazuma gave her an annoyed yet sympathetic look. That look reminded him so much of Kanami… He couldn't bring himself to hit Ryuhou as long as she looked like that. Ryuhou, on the other hand, had no intention of backing down. He kicked Kazuma's ribs, and the breath got knocked out of him. He fell to his knees, his pupil's dilating. Both of them now very injured, they were on their knees and hitting each other with what little strength they had left. Mimori was sad by the sight of this. "Please leave us alone Kazuma." She said sternly, fighting back her own tears.

Kazuma, now weak himself, decided to take Mimori's request and leave with the other Alter users. Mimori looked down at Ryuhou.

"Are you ok?" She asked, getting on her knees so she could be eye to eye level with him.

"This is all your fault Mimori…" He said angrily.

"My fault?" She asked, somewhat hurt.

"If you hadn't gotten in the way, you wouldn't have been captured, if you hadn't gotten in the way, we could've finished our fight!"

"But I was just trying to help out like Scheris does," She said sadly.

"You will NEVER be able to help me like Scheris. SCHERIS has an Alter power, SCHERIS wouldn't have gotten in the way, and even if she had she would've used her Alter power to defend herself! You don't belong at HOLY, the only reason you're there is because you Mr. Kiryu's daughter!"

"Well I'm SORRY that I'm not one of the 2 percent of the kids born on the Lost Ground that was gifted with an Alter power!" The tears that had been welling in her eyes had now fallen onto her hands. Her tears burned her, and she screamed in pain. Ryuhou looked at her hands where the tears had fallen, and there were now burn marks. That wasn't normal.

As the tears began to fall, they left burn marks on the ground where they would hit. Then he noticed it, after every tear would fall, her body would glow that exact same glow that Ryuhou's body made when he summoned Zetsuei. Could it be?

"Mimori has this ever happened before?" Mimori shook her head, her hands still burning. "I think… I think you're an Alter User….." Her eyes widened as she looked at her hands, and then to the ground. "My tears?" Unlike the ride to their destination, the ride home was very talkative. Most of it was Ryuhou questioning Mimori about her Alter power.

"I don't believe it…. I didn't even know I was born on the Lost Ground…so maybe I do belong at HOLY…." She thought for a minute. "Ryuhou please don't tell anyone about this…"

"But I need to inform the Commander," Ryuhou protested.

"Ryuhou, please," She gave him a pleading look that no one could refuse. "I want to learn to control it before I show anyone. You of all people should know how it feels…."

Ryuhou was silent for a few moments before finally sighing. "Fine then… But only for a while." Mimori smiled.

"Thank you Ryuhou," She smiled and laughed. Soon afterwards they arrived at HOLY and Mimori went to her room. "Do you want to come in?" Mimori asked. Ryuhou nodded and sat on the couch uncomfortably. He didn't want to leave her in case something happened. She put in another tape, and immediately his eyes were transfixed to the screen.

_It was Ryuhou's birthday. They had already had the party and Mimori still hadn't given Ryuhou her present._

_"Go on," Ryuhou's mother urged Mimori, nudging her towards Ryuhou while trying to balance the camera. Mimori walked slowly up to Ryuhou and shakily gave him a folded up piece of paper. He unfolded it and she looked away._

_"It's not that good," she said sadly._

_"Are you kidding? This is the best drawing I've ever seen!" Ryuhou smiled and thanked her ._It was the same picture that Ryuhou had put in his back pocket earlier that day. _Fireworks went off for Ryuhou, and as they lit the sky, Mimori couldn't help but stand in awe as all the colors lit up the sky. _

"_they're so beautiful…"She said._

"_Not nearly as beautiful as you…" Mimori looked at him and blushed, and she smiled and hugged him, catching Ryuhou off guard. He was shocked and shy but slowly hugged back._

As if on instinct, Ryuhou pulled the two pictures out of his back pocket and looked at them.

"Ryuhou?" Mimori asked. He snapped out of it and looked around to find him and Mimori both right in front of the tv, and Mimori looking down at the pictures. Ryuhou got up abruptly and left her room and back to his. "But Ryuhou!" He was already gone. "hmph, and he tells me not to live in the past…..what if the past isn't in the past…."She leaned against her doorway.


	3. What If

K well I hope I surprised you when I told you that Mimori was an Alter User! I love surprising people, anyways here's the next chapter

Chapter 3-What if….(The Promises)

Ryuhou walked into his bedroom and started at the 2 pictures that he had clutched in his hand the entire time he was walking down the hall. 'This is going to complicate things… I won't be able to convince her to go back to the mainland now… Now she has a legitimate reason to stay…'

Scheris knocked on Mimori's door angrily. Mimori opened the door and Scheris stomped in. She was obviously freaked out about something. Her eyes were red and her cheeks were red because she was still sick.

"Scheris you should be in bed, what are you doing? You need to recover quickly!" Mimori insisted.

"Why was he here in your room!" Scheris demanded. "Cougar said he saw Ryuhou in your room!"

Mimori smiled to herself at the thought of Ryuhou. "Why don't you just ask Ryuhou?"

"FINE THEN I-" She started coughing and fell to her knees. Mimori bent down to look at her. She was obviously in pain.

"Scheris you okay? Come on I'll help you back to your room."

"No!" Scheris insisted. "Not until you tell me why he was here!"

Mimori sighed. "The reason Ryuhou was here earlier was because I dropped some pots and pans and he came in to see if I was ok," She replied, hoping that he hadn't seen Ryuhou enter her room the second time. Luckily Cougar had seen no such thing.

"Oh…ok then… that's………. good…" Scheris smiled and passed out.

"Scheris!" Mimori picked her up and carried Scheris to her room. She went to the sink and wrung the excess water out of a rag. She took a seat beside the now conscious Scheris and put the rag on her forehead. "Well I guess it's a good thing I work in the medical center!" 'Although I won't be in that department for much longer once the commander finds out…' she thought.

"You realize this doesn't change anything right? Just because you're helping me doesn't mean I wanna be your friend."

"Yes I know," Mimori replied. Scheris and Mimori talked for a while, mostly of Ryuhou. It turned out Scheris wasn't that bad of a person, nor was Mimori, despite their jealousy of each other. And, of course, Ryuhou walked in later.

"Scheris are you ok?" Ryuhou asked, then glared at Mimori.

"Why are you in her room? What did you do to her? Did you use it on her?"

Mimori was shocked. "No… I didn't…" She couldn't believe he said that to her, especially in front of Scheris! Sure she and Scheris had their differences and their rivalry, but that didn't mean she wanted to hurt Scheris, especially with an alter power she couldn't control yet. The nerve of him! And not only that, but before he walked in, she and Scheris were on the verge of forging a friendship! How dare he accuse her of something like that! "Why would you say such a thing to me?" Scheris looked back and forth between the two, thoroughly confused.

"Well you said yourself you couldn't control it," Ryuhou explained.

"Control what?" Scheris asked, trying to piece together what they were talking about.

Mimori was now angry at Ryuhou, and grabbed his arm and dragged him outside of Scheris's room. Ryuhou would've refused had it not been for the fact that Mimori was strong when she was angry, and he didn't want either of them hurt so he just went along with her.

"I thought you said you wouldn't tell anybody!" Mimori demanded, her eyes welling. 'Oh no.' she thought. 'Don't tell me I can't control when I cry now?'

"I didn't," he said cautiously, noticing her eyes shimmering with unreleased tears.

"Then what was that back there!" She pointed to Scheris's room, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall. She didn't want to cry, she wasn't sad, she was simply angered at Ryuhou, but her Alter power wasn't under control, and the only time that she was ever able to release her alter power was when she cried.

"What was what?" He asked, still oblivious.

"Scheris was in there too! Watching the both of us and putting together everything you were saying!"

"So you blame me for something that you can't control?" he asked, trying to sound calm but there was a tinge of annoyance and anger in his voice.

"I never said I was blaming you! And you make it sound like it's so easy! If I remember correctly in that 6 months when I knew you when we were kids you weren't able to control your alter! I've known about mine for one day, if even that! So sorry if I can't control it!"

"Then learn to control your emotions!" Ryuhou shot back. "Learn to control them or don't have any emotions at all, otherwise you will never succeed." He watched as a single tear glistened down her cheek, leaving a burn mark as it trailed down. The moment it hit the floor, an immense fire started. Ryuhou was barely able to grab Mimori and jump out of the way so they wouldn't get burned.

"Miss Kiryu stay here!" He said as he summoned Zetsuei. He tried to make wind in order to extinguish the flames, but nothing would work. Mimori was getting madder because he referred to her as 'Miss Kiryu' again.

"Why can't you just call me Mimori?" The fire grew as she said this, and Ryuhou was forced to back away from the fire.

"Fine then Mimori control yourself! It seems that you control the flames so calm down!"

"I can't!" She shouted in a scared voice. The flames were getting bigger and they were spreading, soon they would begin to burn down Scheris's room, along with the ill Scheris. The flames headed towards Mimori and Ryuhou, and something in Ryuhou sparked as he jumped in front of Mimori to black the attack from hitting her. The HOLY suit that he was wearing now had a whole in the back from the flames.

"TRY!" He demanded as sweat dripped down his forehead. He pulled out the 2 pictures from his back pocket, thankful they weren't already burned to ashes, and held them in front of Mimori's face.

Immediately upon seeing the pictures her heart stopped racing and the fire died down. The hall was now filled with scorch marks, and other members of HOLY now approached the scene. Ryuhou ran into Scheris's room with Mimori.

"Scheris if anyone asks don't tell them Mimori and I were here okay?" Scheris was as confused as ever but nodded her head. "We'll see you later."

They snuck past the other HOLY members and into Ryuhou's room.. It was only when they arrived that Ryuhou turned his back towards Mimori to go sit down in a chair that Mimori noticed the scorch marks on his back and the hole in his suit.

"Ryuhou your back…" Mimori looked sad as she stared at it.

"It's nothing I'm fine, even Kazuma has done worse to me than this."

"But I inflicted it on you… I'm sorry."

"Like I said it's fine so drop it." He handed her a cup of water. "Here."

"Why did you save me?" She asked as she looked down at her cup.

"Because I may have changed a lot over the years, but I'm not a liar and I don't break promises."

"Promises?" Mimori looked confused.

"Well then I guess it's my turn to show you something, wait here." He went into his bedroom and came out holding a tape.

"It seems I'm not the only one with tapes."

"Hai." He put the tape into his VCR and sat down next to Mimori.

_It was a few days before Mimori was leaving, and both Mimori and Ryuhou were sad because of it. Ryuhou's only and best friend was leaving him for what seemed like forever. The same thoughts were going through Mimori's mind as the day drew closer._

"_I don't want to leave," Mimori complained._

"_I don't want you to either."_

"_I'm scared to go back, I don't wanna go, you're my best friend! And plus now who's going to protect me against the boogieman?"_

_Ryuhou laughed. "Tell you what, I'll make a promise to you. If we ever meet again I'll protect you from anything that threatens to harm you."_

"_Okay!" Mimori smiled. "Don't worry, we'll meet again! I'll make sure of it! I'll find you no matter where you are! I Promise!" _

_Ryuhou nodded. "Ok so we have a deal! When you find me I'll keep you safe right?"_

"_RIGHT!" Mimori exclaimed in agreement. "Wait… How do I know you're not a liar… I mean, you ARE a cheater!" She laughed, referring to the card game._

"_I am not a cheater!"_

"_Maybe not, but you ARE IT!" Mimori tagged him and he grinned and ran after her, both of them laughing and running around in his room._

Ryuhou stopped the video and ejected it. Mimori had forgotten about that day. "So it seems we both held up our ends of the deal." Ryuhou said.

"Yah, I didn't even remember that we had made those promises."

"Well that's good to know, especially since you claim to be living in the past." He said sarcastically.

"I don't think it is the past, and excuse me but who's the one who showed me that tape?" She smiled. It seemed that every time he watched one of the tapes, she would see the old him for a little while.

"Whatever, I-" he was cut short by someone knocking on the door. He opened it to find Cougar at the door.

Cougar looked past Ryuhou's shoulder and saw Mimori. "Well then I guess it saves me the time of having to go to Miss Minori's room." The look in his eyes changed back to their usual distant and cold look.

"It's Mimori," She said stubbornly. Now both Ryuihou and Mimori had serious looks on their faces.

"Why are you here?" Ryuhou glared.

"The Commander wants to see both of you." Cougar shrugged. Both Mimori and Ryuhou walked past him when he said, "Oh and did you hear about the fire just outside Scheris's room? Strange huh?" Mimori and Ryuhou stopped for a split second, then quickened their pace. Luckily Ryuhou had changed into a different, un-torched uniform before they left.

They walked into the Commander's office, and he gave both of them stern stares and a look of annoyance. He sighed, and Mimori gulped while Ryuhou stood at attention.


	4. Breakfast For Dinner

K well here's the next chapter! Thanks to all the reviewers I really appreciate it!

Chapter 4-Breakfast for Dinner

"Ryuhou I'm sure you've heard about the strange fire that has occurred in front of Scheris's room."

"No sir," Ryuhou lied. He hated himself for lying, but he never broke a promise to someone, it went against his morals. But then again, so did lying. So why is it he chose Mimori to protect rather than break the promise and tell Commander the truth? 'Because she's like me…' he answered himself. 'We're the same in that aspect….'

Commander's face looked disappointed. Mimori got the feeling that somehow Commander knew that it was her fault. "I see… Mimori could you leave us?" Mimori looked a bit worried but followed orders and left the room. After about 10 minutes Ryuhou came outside. He turned to Mimori and glared.

"What did you tell him?" He asked, the glare intensifying.

"Nothing! Why do you always assume that I tell people everything! I've been with you since the mission!"

"I've been assigned….." He began. " Scheris is no longer my partner….. You are…. I think he knows…."

"That wouldn't surprise me, somehow he knows everything that goes on around here, even when it's trying to be kept a secret…"

"Well come one, time to train."

"Train?"

"Yah, if you're gonna be my partner you need to learn to control it and either fight with me against the Native Alters or defend yourself while I do the fighting."

Mimori didn't like the thought of fighting against Native Alters, in her point of view, they didn't do anything wrong and didn't deserve to be captured. But she was spending time with Ryuhou, and she wouldn't be able to convince him of her thoughts until she got closer to him, so she decided not to reply to his comment.

"When do we start?" She smiled.

"Right now!" He summoned Zetsuei and it charged at Mimori. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the pain, but it never came. She opened her eyes slowly to reveal Zetsuei literally an inch away from her face. "Always be ready, that's the first thing you must learn to do besides controlling your powers. Never let an opponent catch you off guard, I guarantee that they won't hesitate as I did." Mimori nodded. "Now cry, and force your tears at me without burning yourself."

"Mimori gave him a crazy look. "Excuse me? I can't control when I cry anymore, and I surely can't make my tears go towards you! Much less without burning myself! You're taking this way too fast!"

"Ok then first thing's first, cry."

"Weren't you listening? I said I can't!"

"Then why are you even here?" He walked closer to her. "If I can't help you then you should just go back to the mainland and stop bothering me with you're low confidence in yourself. Stop whining and try."

"I told you I can't! And I don't have low confidence I'm simply stating my capabilities!"

"Then take your capabilities and leave Miss Kiryu." He turned around and began to walk away.

"You jerk…" She whispered. She hated him calling her that, and she hated how he told her to leave

"Scheris wouldn't have given up this easily.." was his reply.

"You JEEERRRKKK!" Tears flooded from her eyes and burned the ground around her. It made a bubble of fire around her that got bigger as more tears fell.

"Mimori!" To both of their surprise, Mimori wasn't harmed. Well, her clothes were turned to ash, but she herself had no burns of any kind on her. Ryuhou was very relieved that the fire made it to where he couldn't see her. "Calm down control yourself!"

"LIKE SCHERIS WOULD!" She asked, her voice filled with sadness and anger.

"I only said that to awaken your Alter! I didn't mean it Mimori calm down!" It seems nothing could control her, she attacked Zetsuei with full force, and Zetsuei seemed to be injured.

"Ryuhou I can't control it! I can't control it anymore! It won't stop I can't calm down!" She was scared, at first she was able to control how powerful it was, but now she couldn't stop it.

Ryuhou was left with no other options. As much as he hated "living in the pat" or anything to do with it, it seems he had no other choice. 'She is going to owe me for this one…' "MIRI!" He shouted as loud as he could.

Mimori's heart skipped a beat. It was a nickname he had given her a long time ago. He had forgotten her name and had remembered the first and last syllables. Thinking it was cute, Mimori had insisted on Ryuhou calling her that. The fire that engulfed her and everything around her ceased, and she fell to her knees.

"Take this Mimori," Ryuhou handed her a jacket and refused to look at her while she didn't have her clothes on. "For all of our sake's take it and out it on." Mimori smiled and gratefully accepted his offer.

"Thank you Ryuhou," She couldn't help but show the happiness that she felt. He had never, not since they were kids, refered to her as Miri. She hugged him, but he quickly moved out of her reach.

"Don't hug me." Mimori looked a bit disappointed, but not even that could stop her from smiling a bright smile. She extended her hand formally, and he shook it. "You're welcome, but you owe me big time." They walked back into HOLY headquarters and Mimori followed Ryuhou back into his room.

"How do I pay you back?" She asked. Ryuhou gave her a serious look.

"Mimori, if you ever tell anyone that I asked you to do this, I will seriously kill you." Mimori gulped. "I want you… to cook for me….I hate cafeteria food…." Mimori was fighting the urge to burst with laughter.

"You mean that's all?" she asked as she fought off fits of giggles. He was serious no matter what, even when it came to cooking!

"Unfortunately I can't cook worth crap, so I'm asking you to do it for me.." Mimori nodded and went to get his pots and pans. She decided to cook him breakfast for dinner, and made him pancakes, eggs, and biscuits. He quickly scarfed them down and thanked her politley

"And for dessert I'll make orange frosted cinnamon rolls!" She smiled.

"You might want to check the expiration date on those, they've been in the fried for a while."

"They'll be fine, but before you get them you have to say the word!"

"The word?" Ryuhou was confused. "What word?"

"When you can guess it, you can have your orange frosted cinnamon rolls!" Mimori walked away from him. Ryuhou, on the other hand, realized how good the dessert smelled, and was bound and determined to get some.

"Hey," he said, suddenly coming to a realization. "_I _bought those!"

"Hai, but who cooked them?" Mimori stuck out her tongue. The way he was acting reminded her of when they were kids, and she was loving and cherishing every rare minute of it.

"Oh and after you're done please get out of my jacket and go get your own clothes, Cougar would have a field day if he could see this." Upon hearing this Mimori blushed, remembering that all she was wearing was his jacket. She tugged at it and tried to pull it lower so it wouldn't show so much of her legs. "Is it please?"

Mimori remembered that she was making him guess the word. "Nope!" She smirked. He began to guess random things, each of them being wrong. 'Boy he may be smart like me but at times he can be such an idiot…' she laughed inside. The timer went off, and Mimori went to get the biscuits. "I would hurry if I were you, before they get cold!"

Ryuhou was stumped. He couldn't believe it, one stupid word was preventing him from eating those sweet smelling cinnamon rolls! He was thinking about using Zetsuei to steal them from her, but he figured he wouldn't waste his energy, and plus he didn't want to get Mimori fired up again.

He was just about to guess another word when they heard a knock at the door. Mimori went to answer it, taking the plate of cinnamon rolls with her. She opened it to find it was none other than Cougar. Cougar looked strangely at Mimori. He was going to grin widely when he came to 3 important realizations.

She was in Ryuhou's room.

Holding a tray of cinnamon rolls.

Wearing nothing but one of Ryuhou's jackets.

"M-Miss Minori!" He said, his voice full of shock. From the expression on his face she could tell that he was taken aback by something.

"It's Mimori," She corrected him, giving him a slight glare.

"MIRI!" Ryuhou shouted.

"Yah?" She replied, answering to her name.

"You let him say your name wrong!" Cougar protested. "Why can't I call you Mimori?"

"Because the name he used is one he used for a reason, not because he always gets my name wrong."

"Is the word Miri?" Ryuhou asked.

Mimori laughed. "Yes that's the word, here you go!"

Cougar was in shock. "You…you cooked for him? Why don't you ever cook for MEEEEE?" He pouted.

Ryuhou now stood at the doorway next to Mimori. "Is there an actual reason you're here Cougar?"

"I wanted to ask you what Commander wanted, but now I want to know why Mimori's here!"

"Neither of those issues are of your concern," Ryuhou glared at Cougar and shut the door, leaving a very shocked and disturbed Cougar in the hallway. He turned to Mimori. "you should really be getting back to your room, it's late and if anyone else walks in and sees your attire I'm positive that they will react just as bad, if not worse, than Cougar." Mimori didn't understand him at all. First he wants her to cook for him, now he's making her leave? "I appreciate the foos Mimori, I'll see you at 5:00 for training."

"Umm you mean 5:00 as in the 5:00 pm right?"

"No 5:00 am, you don't want anyone else finding out about your alter power do you?"

"Well no…."

"Then I'll see you then." He pushed her out of his room and shut the door. Mimori walked to her room and changed. 'I wonder how Scheris is doing….'

Scheris, still in bed, opened a letter from the Commander. She read it carefully, and when she was done with it her eyes widened. "RYUHOU!"


	5. New Home, New Wardrobe

Thanks for the reviews guys! I really appreciate them! Here's Chapter 5!

Chapter 5- New Home, New Wardrobe

Scheris ran through the halls to Ryuhou's room. She didn't care how sick she was, this letter was top priority! She pounded on his door just after Mimori had left and he opened it, expecting to see Mimori.

"Scheris!" he exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here?" He could tell she was troubled; she looked as though she could burst into tears, and was very thankful now that it wasn't Mimori at his door.

"WHAT IS THIS?" She asked hysterically. "Since when have you been re-assigned to Mimori! And since when was I assigned to Cougar! He's never worked on a team before! He's good at flying solo, not partners! Mimori isn't even an Alter User!" So she hadn't figured it out, good. "I bet it's all cause she's a "princess" and her dad helps fund the place! So of course Queen Mimori gets her way!" This was seriously bothering her.

"Scheris why is this troubling you so much?" He looked down at her, and she flung herself through his doors and into his arms. This of course caught him off guard, and the force of her sneak attack made him fall to the ground with her on top of him. Desperately not wanting anyone to see this as it was embarrassing enough; he kicked the door shut with the tip of his toe and laid there on the floor. Scheris was clinging to him tightly, and Ryuhou was placed in an awkward position. What was he supposed to do? Shove a crying woman off and glare while saying 'Don't touch me'? But he wasn't really jumping at the chance to hold her either. 'What would a normal person do…?' Deciding that it would be best to comfort her, he cautiously placed him arms around her.

As luck would have it, Mimori just so happened to be on her way to bring Ryuhou's shirt back. To him. Figuring the door was open, she turned the doorknob. Sure enough, the door opened, only for Mimori to see Scheris.

And Ryuhou.

On the floor.

Scheris on top of Ryuhou.

With Ryuhou's arms around her.

Mimori didn't want to believe it; she wanted to pretend it was a dream. She lost control. In everything Ryuhou had done to her since they had reunited, nothing was as bad as this. She stood there a minute, her eyes filling with the tears that Ryuhou dreaded. He shoved Scheris off, and went to grab her. It burned his hands when he touched her, and she backed away, shaking her head slowly. She dropped his shirt and ran, Ryuhou at her heels and leaving Scheris very confused.

"Mimori, it's not what it looked like!" Mimori turned around sharply.

"Really Ryuhou?" She asked, giving him a fake smile that couldn't hide her sadness. "Then why don't you explain to me what you would call it?" She turned around and began to walk away. Ryuhou was silent for a moment.

"Miri, I was trying to help her."

"By letting her lay on top of you?" She said bitterly. Again Ryuhou was silent. Something overtook him, and he grabbed her wrists gently. "Please come back with me Mimori, you dropped my jacket after all."

'What a stupid excuse, but an excuse nonetheless.' "Sure I suppose, but only for your jacket…." She avoided his eyes the entire time they were walking down the halls back to Ryuhou's room. It was obvious she had no intention of talking to him, and this gave him a weird feeling. She had never ignored him, no matter what he had ever done to her. Why did this bother him anyway? It's not like he had _feelings for her_. No, those emotions towards her had ended seven years ago. At least that's what he kept repeating in his head.

She walked in his room, only to see Scheris giving Ryuhou a look that made her blood boil. She picked up the jacket Ryuhou had let her borrow, folded it up, and gave it to Ryuhou. Scheris sat on the couch and patted the seat next to her, as though expecting Ryuhou to come sit beside her. Instead Ryuhou gave her a serious look.

"Scheris I'm going to have to ask you to leave, I must speak with Mimori in private." Scheris was upset, but slowly walked out anyway.

Ryuhou shut the door silently behind her and sighed. "Mimori it wasn't what it looked like, she threw herself on me."

"Which is exactly why you had your arms around her right?" Mimori rolled her eyes.

"But I don't know how to react around things such as that."

Mimori laughed a little. "I could've told you that." He got her to laugh. That was a good thing right? She took a seat where Scheris had been sitting, and sat on a piece of paper. "What the-?" She got up to see what it was, and what she saw got her extremely mad. It was a picture Scheris had drawn while Ryuhou had been persuading her to come back. It was Scheris and Ryuhou, kissing while holding their hands that said LOVE in big bold letters at the top. Her eyes glowed and tears fell onto the paper. Not because she was sad, but simply because she was angry. The paper lit on fire, and her eyes stopped glowing. On instinct, she dropped the paper.

Which of course… was still on fire… which OF COURSE… landed on Ryuhou's carpet…… which of course started a much bigger fire……

Ryuhou released Zetsuei to try to take out the flame, but nothing he did was working. He decided that it would be best to leave. So, grabbing the box that he hid amongst a bunch of empty boxes under his bed, he grabbed Mimori's hand and fled out of his place. Other Alter Users were there moments after to take out the fire, and Ryuhou and Mimori were in the Commander's office. Ryuhou explained most of the situation(he left out the part about the picture Scheris had drawn, and the fact that Mimori had start5ed the fire since he wasn't sure that the Commander knew about Mimori) and the commander enter twined his fingers and set his chin to rest on them.

He sighed and, after about 5 minutes of silence, finally spoke. "I have come to the decision that, with her permission, you live with Mimori until we can fix your place and replace the belongings."

Ryuhou and Mimori looked at each other, and Mimori smiled. Why was she smiling? She had just _burned_ his room, and yet she was smiling! But of course, anything Mimori did was contagious, and he soon found himself smiling as well.

"But what about your clothes?" Mimori asked as they arrived at her apartment-like room that she would now be sharing with Ryuhou.

"I'm not sure; HOLY won't provide me with any more."

Mimori had a glint in her eyes, a glint that sent chills down Ryuhou's spine. "Then that means…." She grinned, "…….That we're going shopping….." Ryuhou dreaded those words. Sure enough, within 5 minutes, they were in a cab on their way to the mall. She had Ryuhou buy clothes he would NEVER usually wear, had it not been for her, he bought what he called 'civilian clothes'.

"This doesn't feel right," He said, holding a blue snow-cone he had bought at the mall while staring down at his baggy pant and black muscle shirt. Mimori's snow cone was red and she looked at him and smiled.

"It looks good on you!" Mimori insisted. They arrived back at what they could now call 'their' apartment and dropped the bags of new clothes. Almost immediately after, there was a knock at the door. Mimori opened it to find Cougar standing outside.

"Commander wants to see us in his office, Ryuhou too." Mimori looked at Ryuhou, who shrugged at this. Were they in trouble _again_? They walked cautiously into the Commander's room and found Scheris already there. He looked at the four of them and gave them a serious look.

"I have a mission for all of you," he began. "I need you to rent a boat and go to the lake with it."

"What is our purpose?" Ryuhou asked.

"HOLY shall supply the money needed for this mission. The objective is to have fun." All of them gave him confused looks. "Well, I just thought you should enjoy a day without fighting Native Alters for once. Now go before I change my mind!"

"SIR!" They all ran out of the room and called a cab to the boat rental center. They put on the life jackets and headed out. Commander had picked the perfect day to do that, the sun was shining, the water was glistening and the water smelled fresh as the wind blew through their hair. The rented a tube and Ryuhou was the first one on. He held on to the handles tight, as though he would die if he even dared to let go. As luck would have it, Cougar was driving, and when he went to turn Ryuhou was jolted off of the tube and went tumbling across the water. His chest was hurting; he could feel his heart hurting from the force of the water. When the boat came around to pick him up, it took everything in him not to call out Zetsuei and tear Cougar into little pieces. After that they decided NOT to let Cougar drive, for his own safety.

After that it was Scheris's turn, who, unlike Ryuhou, was much less tense. She rode the waves as though they were nothing, but after a while she got afraid of falling off and had them stop the boat. Next was Mimori. She was smiling the entire time she was riding, she turned perfectly, she never even came close to falling, until, all of the sudden, something forced her underwater. Ryuhou had a bad feeling about this, everything was going fine, how could that have changed so quickly? After a few moments of silence, Ryuhou took off his life jacket and dove into the water. Sure enough, something had gotten a hold of Mimori, and that wasn't just any something- It was something created by an Alter User! Indeed, they had been ambushed, and in their condition, Mimori's Alter was useless. With the fire of determination, Ryuhou summoned Zetsuei and prepared for battle while trying to get Mimori up to the surface for some air. This was going to be a tough battle….


	6. Just to Live

Well guys I'm really glad you like this story, sorry I haven't; been updating as frequently as usual, but with school and all (and the fact that I can only update on weekends) I haven't had much time to do so lately. But anyways I'm here now and updating so here we go!

Chapter 6- Just To Live…

Ryuhou swam up for air, then went back down quickly, even before Cougar had the time to ask what was going on. Mimori, meanwhile, was still underwater, holding onto what little air she had left in her mouth. Her heart was beating at a rapid rate, her chest felt like she couldn't hold it in anymore. Ryuhou took note of this and summoned Zetsuei quickly. Cutting the extension off that had a hold of Mimori, Zetsuei swam Mimori to Ryuhou, who noticed her face was purple. She was going to pass out soon if he didn't do something. He was left with one choice, if he didn't decide to do this then Mimori wouldn't make it to the surface before running out of air and possibly drowning.

While holing her in one hand and waving his hand to swim up in the other, he looked at her face, and locked his lips with hers.

Mimori stopped breathing.

Was this really happening? Was she really underwater, with Ryuhou's lips pressed against hers?

Then she finally realized what he was doing. He was taking the air from his own mouth and transferring it to hers. She had never witnessed something so kind. As much as it pained her, she pulled away, he needed air too!

They reached the surface, it was a good thing that Ryuhou had given her that air. Though her face was purple, it still wouldn't hide the blush that stood out on her cheeks. She and Ryuhou climbed into the boat quickly, and he, Cougar, and Scheris stood in front of her. She was the weakest of them all at the moment, and they watched as the monster arose from the water. Mimori's eyes widened at the size of it. She had never seen such an Alter before, it had a tail, like a fish, and yet it had cat ears, and… wings? This was by far the strangest looking creature she had ever seen, and Ryuhou put his arm in front of her protectively.

The creature threw the boat into the air with it's tail, and Cougar simply laughed at they were in midair. Everyone looked at him crazily.

"HOLD ONTO SOMETHING!" He laughed as he geabbed the wheel and glowed. The engine dissipated and, in place of it, formed a much better, and much faster engine. The speedometer broke, Cougar seemed to have a tendancy to do that with vehicles. He pushed on the handle that controlled the gas and was diving the boat headfirst into the monster.

"COUGAR YOU IDIOT!" Scheris screamed. The boat scraped the side of it and fell into the water. Seconds later they were out of the water and yet again heading towards the Alter. Of course it wasn't going to stand for this again, it took its tail and swiped the boat, tearing it in half. Cougar went delirious, crying over how the Alter killed his baby while running on the water to keep from falling in. The other three were holding onto Zetsuei. Cougar began to run in circles around the Alter, and soon created a whirlpool. The Alter was sucked in, and everyone let out a breath of relief. But the Alter wasn't done yet, it re-emerged moments later, and this time seized Ryuhou. It squeezed him with its tail, which of course got Mimori and Scheris mad.

Mimori let the tears flow, not really caring that it wouldn't do her any good. They fell to her hands and formed ball like figures inside of her hands. She hurled it at the Alters ears, and it screeched., loosing concentration and letting go of Ryuhou.. Since Zetsuei was still holding onto the girls, Cougar decided to pull Ryuhou out and put him on his back. Again Mimori hurled her newly found ability towards the Alter, but this time it reflected it with its tail, and shoved Mimori under yet again.

Ryuhou and Cougar were M-A-D. Ryuhou again jumped after her, and Cougar tried to make another whirlpool. Once up, he called Zetsuei and had Scheris get on Cougar's back so he and Mimori could get on.

"There has to be an Alter User controlling it!" Ryuhou explained once they were in the air. "You might not be able to do much to the Alter, but to the User I'm sure you can inflict a lot of damage! See if you can find anyone near us who could be controlling it!" They looked and looked, but to no avail. They were stranded, and there wasn't a soul around for as far as the eye could see.

'Where is this User?' she thought to herself. Then she saw it- a glint of something shining in the water- someone was scuba diving! "THERE! It's in the water Ryuhou!" Zetsuei dove headfirst into the water and Mimori tried to use her Alter when she remembered…

SHE WAS IN WATER, ONE OF THE FEW PLACES WHERE HER BURNING TEARS WON'T WORK. The scuba diver wrung his hands around Mimori's neck, and Ryuhou's body, along with Zetsuei's, began to shine. Zetsuei transformed into its more powerful form, and attacked the User. He used his Alter to defend himself, or at least he tried to defend himself, but the powerful Zetsuei was no match for him. The Alter disappeared, and HOLY agents arrived moments later in a helicopter to take the User into custody.

The four of them entered the plane as well, all of them covered in towels. They arrived back to headquarters and headed straight to their rooms. No one really felt like talking, the battle had worn them out. Ryuhou and Mimori, however, talked nonstop once they entered the apartment.

"So when did you get the ability to form it into fireballs?" Ryuhou asked.

"When I saw that you were in trouble and needed my help," was her reply. "What about you? I haven't seen Zetsuei get so powerful before, not even when you've faced off against Kazuma."

"Well you've never been in any danger like that when I've faced Kazuma," was the answer he gave her.

Mimori thought about this for a while, then blushed and ran two of her fingers across her lips. "Ryuhou, about what happened before-"

"I only did it to save your life," He said sternly. "Had I not then there was a risk of you drowning. I did it so you could live, that's all."

"Was that the only reason?" she asked. "Do you remember the time when that wasn't the only reason you did it?" He and she both thought back for a moment to remember what had happened that day…

_Both of their families were at the beach and had packed a lunch. Ryuhou and Mimori had been swimming in the water while boats were riding and creating waves. Their parents were too pre-occupied to notice how far Ryuhou and Mimori had swam out. The current was getting stronger, and Ryuhou began to head back. Mimori, however, wasn't strong enough to swim back, and got tired of trying. Her body gave out, and she sank to the floor. Ryuhou noticed this, and went underwater to find her. She was at the very bottom, her mouth was open, and Ryuhou, for one of the first times in his life, was scared of losing her._

_He pulled her up and had swam her to the shore, but not near her parents. Both of them would have been in trouble if they had seen that Mimori had fainted. He laid her down on the rocks and sand as the waves gently brushed against their feet._

_"Open your eyes Miri, please open your eyes! Miri? Miri!" His eyes filled with salty tears, then he got determined. He opened her mouth, took a deep breath, and breathed air into her mouth. He had done this over and over again, and had applied pressure to her chest She opened her eyes to find his mouth still on hers He noticed this but kept his lips pressed against hers. She blushed for a while before finally coughing up water. Ryuhou laughed because some of the water had gotten into his mouth._

_They sat there for a while, then ran to rejoin their parents, and didn't mention it again until that night._

_"Ryu?" Mimori asked._

_"Yes Miri?"_

_"After you saved me, why did you have your lips on me still?"_

_Ryuhou blushed a crimson red at this. "Because….I really like you Miri…"_

_"Mimori smiled at this. "I really like you too Ryu!" She hugged him, and this made him uncomfortable. She laughed, and he hugged back, laughing as well. That had been the best part of the day for both of them…_

Ryuhou hesitated. "What's for dinner?" He asked, trying to change the subject quickly.

Mimori sighed. "I don't know, whatever's in the fridge…"

"Then maybe…" Ryuhou started.

Mimori gave him a suspicious look. What was he planning? Was _Ryuhou _actually asking _her _to go somewhere with him? "Yes?" She asked uncertainly.

"Maybe we could go out to eat?" Mimori nodded and smiled. She ran into her bedroom and dressed up. She actually put on make up for such and occasion! Making sure her hair was okay, she turned the doorknob and opened the door to see Ryuhou dressed up as well. He had just stopped checking his hair when he heard her fdoor begin to open. He turned around to look at her, and Mimori was a little saddened that his facial expression didn't change.

But something inside Ryuhou was poking at his side. What was it? It seemed that the longer he looked at her, the harder the poking was getting. He looked away, and Mimori's eyes began to fill with tears. Did he not want to look at her? Was something wrong with the way she looked? She decided to try and fight off the tears; she didn't want to burn down _her _apartment too.

He opened the door for her as they walked out, ignoring her sad eyes. It was hard enough as it was, but with her eyes looking so sad like that, the poking would have killed him. He hailed a cab and let her in fist. He looked out of the window until she finally spoke.

"Is there something wrong with me Ryuhou?" she asked quietly. Finally, for the first time since before they left, he turned to look at her. "Are you mad at me for getting you hurt in that battle?"

"Mad? No Mimori, I'm not mad…" 'I just can't stand this poking feeling in my side, so it's better for me not to look at you…' he thought to himself bitterly. "So, where do you want to-" He was cut off by a cloud of smoke that was rising outside of their cab. Through the smoke he saw the one person besides Cougar that he didn't want to see tonight- Kazuma.

Ryuhou jumped out of the car without a word to anybody, and Mimori paid the driver and ran out after Ryuhou. He, however, had already called out Kazuma and summoned Zetsuei. Kazuma's eyes went from Ryuhou to Mimori, then back to Ryuhou before smirking. "What about that blue-haired girl? I thought you were dating her?" Kazuma grinned. "Looks like you proved me wrong."

Ryuhou grinded his teeth and Zetsuei transformed. Mimori made everyone leave the area by screaming that they were Alter Users. "Couldn't you have made them leave in a nicer way?" Ryuhou asked her, not taking his eyes off of Kazuma. Mimori shrugged, and he sighed. 'Oh well, at least the civilians are out of our way. This time I will _DESTROY KAZUMA!'_

"Why are you so dressed up anyway?" Kazuma gave him a disgusted look. "Or are you and her on a date?"

"Nothing of the sort!" Ryuhou snapped back quickly, making Mimori's heart sink a little.

"Well then I won't let a pretty thing like her go to waste! I'll take her on a date myself!" Kazuma laughed. He was too busy laughing to notice Zetsuei come at him. He DID, however, notice Zetsuei hit him full force. He crashed into the ground, making more smoke arise into the air. Kazuma got up, grinning that trademark grin of his. He got into his fighting stance and called out his Shell Bullet. "Let's do this! SHOCKING FIRST BULLET!"

Well I hope you liked it! Thanks again for reviewing, I really appreciate the reviews!


	7. Ripped

Thanks for your reviews guys; they really mean a lot to me. They let me know how good or bad I'm doing. So now chapter 7!

Chapter 7-Ripped

"SHOCKING FIRST BULLET!" He headed straight for Ryuhou, who calmly used Zetsuei to block the attack and hit Kazuma. "Don't think I'm through yet!"

"I think you are!" Mimori said to him as her eyes began to water.

"Miri no!" Ryuhou said to her, this time turning to look. "Don't waste your energy on him!"

"Miri?" Kazuma repeated. "Is that some lovey dovey pet name or something?"

Ryuhou regretted calling her Miri in front of Kazuma, because now he was prancing around in a girly way saying 'Miri' in a sappy way. This angered Ryuhou and he made Zetsuei transform into its more powerful form. Kazuma took a good look at it, then at his already bruised body. After adding those two factors into his equation, he looked at Mimori and grinned. He grabbed her by the waist, then ran off into the sun that was beginning to set. Ryuhou hit the ground with his fist, then got up to wipe the dust off of his suit.

"Miri I will get him for this, I promise," he said under his breath.

"Where are you taking me?" Mimori demanded.

"I told you!" He answered. " If he wasn't gonna take you out on a date then I was!" Mimori wanted nothing more than to use her Alter on him, but Ryuhou had told her not to, so she obeyed his request.

'Ryuhou please find us soon…' Mimori thought sadly. "So why did you take me away?"

"Why do I ALWAYS take you away?" He asked a little jokingly. "It guarantees me a safe escape from him when I'm not in the mood to fight. Or rather when I have better things to do than fight, places to go and people to see!" He said, thinking a bit of the girl waiting for him at home who he hadn't seen in a while.

"You should really consider other people's feelings before simply taking them without their consent!"

Kazuma stopped and landed on the ground past the barriers of the mainland. "Then why are you with HOLY?" He glared at her in a way that Ryuhou would glare at her. "If you really think like that then why don't you practice what you preach? Do you honestly _think that these people want to be taken away from their homes?_ Do you _honestly_ think that they like complete strangers coming into their homes and taking away everything that they hold dear to them!" He punched the ground with his Alter, causing a small crater to form where he had hit. "That is why I fight HOLY, that is why I will never give up until I destroy every last HOLY member! _ESPECIALLY RYUHOU!_"

"He…" she said softly, " is the only reason I stay as HOLY, he's the only real reason I stay there…"

"But does he care about your feelings at all? No, he's a heartless moron who can't seem to deflate that stupid head of his!"

"And just how would you know!" Mimori asked, the tears forming uncontrollably in her eyes. He was getting her angry and upset, making it harder for her to keep her Alter in check.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he asked in a high voice as he saw the tears glistening. "Don't cry, I was just being honest!" He saw the tears getting bigger and didn't know what to do. He had never dealt her crying, and he wasn't sure how to subdue her.

Mimori turned and ran. She didn't want to release her Alter, not in front of him, especially since she had no idea how strong it would be.

"Hey, where do you think you're going? I haven't taken you to our date spot yet!" Kazuma whined.

"DATE'S OFF!" Mimori yelled behind her. Kazuma ran to catch up to her and began shouting to her.

"But you're dressed up and everything so why waste it? Why not just come with me? No one will be able to find you anyway, so you might as well at least try to enjoy your time here!"

"No!" She stopped running, finally gaining control of her Burning Tears. "Ryuhou will find me, and when he does he's gonna kick the crap out of you for doing this!"

Kazuma stopped when he caught up to her. "Do you really think that?" he asked.

"I _know_ that…"was his answer. Kazuma shrugged and smiled, sitting down.

"Oh well, when he does come I'll be able to finish what we started!"

"Aren't you the one who ran away?" Mimori asked dully.

"No," he said in an offended voice. "I _lured_ him out here, then we can fight on my ground, on my terms.

"Terms?" She asked, somewhat confused.

" He can't release the full power of that stupid Alter of his!"

"That's not fair! And what makes you think that he'll agree to those terms?"

"Life's not fair, get used to it," he said coldly. "And he HAS to comply, I have something he wants…"

"Which would be…?"

"You." Mimori blushed as he said this, and looked down at the ground. "He has to retrieve you, apparently you mean something to him if he was willing to transform his Alter because I said something about dating you. Now will you come with me and I promise I'll make it easy for Ryuhou to find us."

"SHE'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE WITH YOU!" He and Zetsuei appeared so fast that it looked as though they appeared out of nowhere. Zetsuei hit Kazuma hard in the jaw, and Ryuhou ran to Mimori. "Are you ok? He didn't hurt you or anything?"

What was with Ryuhou? One minute he won't look at her, the next he's saving her from his rival. "It's about time you showed up," Kazuma smirked. "Before we get started, tell me…"

"If I feel like it then I will answer your question," Ryuhou spat. "Or if there's time between me fighting you and me killing you."

"Why'd you come here? Was it for the girl, or was it to fight me?"

Ryuhou got a lump in his throat. His face remained unchanged, he was good at that, but inside his stomach twisted and churned. His stomach always did that when he was asked questions like that. "I'm assigned to protect her, and I'm also assigned to capture you!" Smart answer, that way he wouldn't be failing either of their little mind games. Soon after replying to his question, Ryuhou muttered something that neither Mimori nor Kazuma could hear or understand "ENOUGH TALK LET'S FIGHT! This time you won't get away!"

"Wait!" Mimori protested Is that the only reason you came for me? Because I'm 'your assignment'?" Again his stomach churned, and his side was being poked at by an imaginary stick.

He was quiet for a long while, before finally replying. "We'll talk about this later, this is not an appropriate conversation for this time and place. Let's go Kazuma!"

"I'm ready as soon as you stop flirting with her!"

"I'm NOT flirting! COME ON!"

"Wait…" Kazuma grinned. " I have one condition and one condition only- You aren't allowed to release the full power of your Alter!"

"And why should I follow those orders?"

Mimori thought about it, and when she finally realized what Kazuma said his excuse was, he had already grabbed her and had his arm up to her neck. "Because it would be a bummer for all of us if her beautiful body was pale from death!"

"You never said anything about killing me!" Mimori shrieked. "Ryuhou should I?"

"No Mimori, I can handle this, I won't break it! Fine Kazuma, I won't use the full potential of Zetsuei!" He reverted Zetsuei into his weakest form and prepared to fight Kazuma. He, of course, got the crap beat out of him, and Kazuma held Mimori with one arm while he was doing so, so he got a front row seat

"RYUHOU!" Mimori shouted. She didn't mean to, she didn't want to, but it happened. Two tears fell from her eyes, and Kazuma burned the arm that he had placed around Mimori. The fire formed a wall between Kazuma and her and Ryuhou. She ran to Ryuhou's side, surveying the damage that Kazuma had inflicted.

Kazuma, on the other hand, was trying to figure out why and how he got burned in the first place, and why there was a wall of fire separating him from the 2 HOLY members. He watched Mimori cry some more, and with every tear that fell, the fire barrier would get bigger.

'So it's her,' Kazuma realized. 'She's an Alter User? Impossible! If she was then she would've used it on me long ago! But what if that was what Ryuhou had told her to save her energy on?'

"Ryuhou say something!" He coughed up blood and got up slowly, refusing Mimori's help.

"Just stay behind me, I can't believe you used your Alter…"

Even when he was injured he could STILL have the energy to criticize Mimori! This never ceased to amaze her, he could be on the verge of dying and would still be able to complain about her. He was impossible to figure out!

Kazuma, who was still confused, fled, trying to make sense of what had occurred. Well, that and he couldn't stand to see Mimori cry for 2 reasons: 1-he can't stand the look in her eyes, and 2-he would get burned if she did!

Ryuhou and Mimori rode on Zetsuei back to the mainland. Both of their fancy clothes were ripped, and Mimori laughed.

"Why are you laughing?" He asked, somewhat confused at how she could laugh after that ordeal.

"I'll show you when we get home," she giggled.

'Why would we have to wait till we got home?' Ryuhou wondered. They arrived, and Ryuhou sat on the couch, exhausted on what was supposed to be a 'fun day' and then what was supposed to be 'dinner with Mimori'. Mimori went into her room and came out with a tape. After putting it into the VCR, she sat on the couch next to Ryuhou.

_Mimori and Ryuhou had gotten a hold of his mother's video camera and were taping various things. They would dare each other to do a certain stunt, the videotape it._

_"Hey Miri," he smiled._

_"What is it Ryu?"_

_"Betcha can't climb to the top of Biggie!" Biggie was a nickname that they had given to the tallest and widest tree in Ryuhou's backyard. Even their dads were somewhat scared to climb Biggie. Mimori, however, knew no fear when Ryuhou was with her._

_"Betcha I can!" She made sure her foot was implanted in a secure spot and began to climb. After about 8 feet of climbing, Mimori got her hair stuck, and asked Ryuhou to climb up and help her get her hair out. Ryuhou dropped the video camera, and it landed in a position where the lens was shooting straight up, making it to where it was still recording what was going on. He got her hair out of the branches, and they continued to climb the tree._

_By the time they made it to the top, Ryuhou's pants were ripped in the knees, Mimori's shirt sleeves were ripped off, and Mimori had a scrape on her elbow._

_"Father's going to kill me," Ryuhou said, looking down at his attire._

_"Mine too, I just got this shirt…." Mimori said, a little sad. Then her face brightened. "But it was well worth it! Look!" Ryuhou looked forward to see a clear view of his entire backyard and even the top of his house. "Everything looks so refreshing!" Both of them had been sitting on one thin branch, and after a while, the branch gave out. .Mimori grabbed Ryuhou's hand and held onto one of the branches they encountered when they had been climbing up, and that one began to give away too._

_"I take it back!" Ryuhou said. "Father won't have time to kill me! The force of this fall will already have done the job!" He looked down at the long drop that they were sure to encounter, then he looked up to Mimori, who's hands were slipping. Their grip on each other tightened as the branch broke and they prepared themselves for the fall. Ryuhou, however, glowed, and a strange looking creature caught both of them before they had the chance to collide with the ground._

_"What is that?" Mimori asked as the creature let them safely onto the ground._

_"That's my Alter, I've seen it once before," Ryuhou smiled, a bit embarrassed. "I'm sorry you had to see it though…"_

_"Sorry? It just saved our lives! Thank you Ryuhou! And thank you- Uh….Umm…"_

_"Zetsuei," Ryuhou finished and Zetsuei disappeared. Ryuhou looked down at the video camera and gasped. "We have to put this back in Mom and Dad's room!" Ryuhou said. "Otherwise we'll be dead for sure!" Ryuhou and Mimori ran inside his house, turned the camera off, and returned it to the exact spot that his mother had placed it._

"Is that why you were laughing?" Ryuhou asked.

Mimori nodded. "With our clothes ripped and everything, that's just what it reminded me of! And that was the first time I met Zetsuei!" Both of their stomachs growled, and Mimori blushed.

"Wanna go to McDonalds?" Ryuhou suggested.

"Sounds good to me!" Mimori smiled as they went outside to try for the 2nd time to go out and eat dinner…

sorry I know this chapter kinda sucked but I'll make the next one a good one! (Or at least I'll try to!)


	8. Balance Yourself!

WOW its been a really long time since I've updated huh? I'm really sorry guys, school's got me so busy and stuff. But anyway I'm not here to make excuses I'm here to make another chapter so here we go!

Chapter 8- Balance Yourself!

Ryuhou and Mimori decided to walk to McDonalds instead of taking a taxi. The stars were out and the moon was full with a light breeze that gently refreshed them. People were staring at them strangely; they had decided to go to McDonalds in their expensively ripped clothes. Mimori had insisted on what Ryuhou called "living in the past" by wearing the clothes, and Ryuhou wanted to give her as good a day as he could. From fighting that monster to fighting Kazuma, they had been through a really stressful day, and Ryuhou didn't want to make it more stressful by arguing.

"2 number 11's," Ryuhou told the cashier.

"Right away," the cashier took their order further back into the room where the other workers had been making the food. They turned around, only to see a very angry Scheris Adjani and a very paranoid Straight Cougar.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL DAY!" they both asked simultaneously as Scheris took Ryuhou's hand and Cougar enveloped Mimori in his arms.

"Oh Miss Minori, I was soo worried! And just _WHY _have you been with Ryuhou this whole time!"

"It's Mimori," they said, somewhat annoyed. So much for less stressful….

The cashier came back with their tray of food and they sat at a booth. After ordering their food as well, Scheris and Cougar sat with them. Neither of them would stop talking to Mimori and Ryuhou, so the both of them were silent the entire time, giving each other looks every once in a while.

"Well, uh…look at the time!" Mimori said with a fake smile that only Ryuhou saw through. You have to be one to know one right? "Thanks for eating with us, it was really great, but we have to get up early tomorrow so we should get going!" Mimori grabbed Ryuhou's hand and walked out quickly before Scheris, even Cougar, could reply. "Whew," she said, letting the fake smile go away. "Well I guess no matter what we do, we will never get a break huh?"

"Actually," Ryuhou began. "I know of one place that might do just that." Calling out Zetsuei, and causing many people in the streets to look at them, he and Mimori rode to the wall that separated the mainland and the Lost Grounds territory. It was a bit of a thin wall, Kazuma had been able to punch through it before, but it was thick enough to where they could walk and sit on it easily. The wind was still blowing softly, and the stars seemed to glow brightly with the moon.

"The stars seem so close…" She thought for a minute. "Just like-"

"The night we met," Ryuhou finished. "I knew this would cheer you up." Her heart thudded in her chest. He had taken her there to cheer her up? That was one of the sweetest things he had done for her since they had re-united. Mimori carefully stood up and stretched her arms out, letting the wind make her now torn dress billow in the wind and her hair dance in it. She began to walk on the wall carefully, making sure she wouldn't fall. "Mimori what are you doing?"

"I'm balancing myself!" She replied with a real smile. "It's fun, you should play with me!"

"But why?" Ryuhou asked.

"Cause you deserve to cheer up too! Now come on!" Carefully turning around to face him, she put her hands in his and made him stand up. He sighed and rolled his eyes yet did as Mimori said and balanced himself as well. Mimori looked back at Ryuhou to see that he had a very serious look on his face. She laughed at this and didn't notice the crack in the wall. Apparently the mainland's building companies had missed one of the cracks that Kazuma had made. Either way she tripped and fell, only hanging on by one hand.

"MIRI!" Immediately Zetsuei was summoned, and she was back on the wall again. "You idiot! You can't be so careless!" Mimori could feel her heart beating from her chest again, and she was now trying to hide the fact that she was blushing. Her heart was going crazy, it felt like everything was being cooped up.

"AHHHHHH!" She yelled and laughed and waited to hear the echo of her voice.

"What did you do that for?" Ryuhou asked with a half smile on his face.

"Well you know as well as I do that it's not good to keep feelings bottled up, otherwise you'll explode and do things that…. Things that you don't always mean, or things that will only intensify the feeling, like when….."

"Oh please, not this memory… Come on Mimori, not _this _memory!"

"But Ryuhou, don't you remember?"

_Ryuhou had bought Mimori a ring, with the help from his father._

_"Father, I would like to marry her." He had told him when he was asked why he wanted it._

_"Marry her?" his father asked. "Marrying someone is a very big deal, are you sure you want to marry her?"_

_"Yes Father, I really like her, and if I marry her….." Ryuhou blushed and his father laughed._

_"OK OK, pick the one you want…"_

_"Thank you Father!"_

_That night, he and Mimori were walking around in his backyard. Ryuhou had insisted on talking with her at the fountain, the exact same place where he had officially given her the necklace. "Mimori, you know I like you right?"_

_"Yes," she smiled._

_"Do you like me back?"_

_"More than anything!"_

_"Then…" he got on both knees, forgetting whether it was both knees or one knee that the guys kneel on when asking for a girl's hand in marriage, "Mimori Kiryu…." He said her first and last name. He had watched every romance movie his mother owned, and had even taken notes, in order to do it perfectly ( and yet somehow he could never remember if it was one knee or both). "Would you be willing to marry me?"_

_Mimori's heart fluttered, no one had ever asked her to marry them before. But she didn't even take a second to think it over. "Yes, Ryuhou, I will marry you!" They both smiled and he hugged her. And if we get married, that means you can't leave!"_

_"Yah! I can stay with you forever!" they smiled at each other and ran around Ryuhou's house, telling anyone and everyone they could about their "engagement"._

"Do you remember what happened when they said-"

"Let's not get into this right now…. I think it's time we went home…"

"But I'm not done balancing myself!" Ryuhou sighed.

"Fine fine, hurry up…" Mimori laughed, but in the back of her mind she remembered what had happened just a few months after they had gotten "engaged".

_Ryuhou and Mimori were crying and screaming at their parents."NOO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS FATHER! I'M GETTING MARRIED TO HIM!" Mimori cried. Her face was flushed and hey eyes were puffy. Her parents were making her get into the car so they could move. Her fiancée wasn't taking it too well either._

"_BUT MOTHER! SHE CAN'T LEAVE NOW! SHE'S GOING TO BE MY WIFE! MOTHER!" Ryuhou was fighting his way towards Mimori, and Mimori was trying her hardest to get towards Ryuhou._

"_Ryuhou," his mother said gently, "If you truly want to marry her, why don't you wait?"_

"_But Mother! I've been waiting for so long to marry her! I NEED to marry Mimori Kiryu! No one else!"_

"_Ryuhou!" Her father had finally gotten her into the car. In the struggle, the ring he had gotten her had fallen off. "NOOO! MY RING!" She banged her fist against the window as they drove off. Ryuhou went to the place where the ring had fallen and cried silently as he put the ring in his pocket._

"_MIMORI!"_

Her face saddened as she remembered that last part. Ryuhou seemed to notice this. "I told you not to think about it," he said to her.

"Do you….still have that ring?"

"I don't know….." he lied.

Mimori's face saddened a bit more, then lit up again. "Hey, betcha can't walk backwards on this thing!"

"You're joking right?" Mimori shook her head. He gave her a determined look and stretched his arms out in order to maintain balance. She walked with him and watched as he walked backwards, never taking off that determined look of his. "OK, your turn."

"My turn?" he nodded. "OK, hold one of my hands so I don't fall off of this wall again!" He took one of her hands and grasped it tightly. She gripped his hand tightly and walked backwards. It was obvious that she was scared, and Ryuhou smirked.

"A member of HOLY, and yet you can't walk backwards on this wall!"

"Oh be quiet Ryuhou!" She smiled and stuck out her tongue, as she had done so many times before. She finished walking backwards and they went home. "You know, even though we fought a lot today, you really made this day good."

"You did too, Miri." She smiled when he called her that. ."Good night." He went to his box and pulled out a small box. Opening it up, he stared at the ring for a while before closing it and going to sleep.


	9. The Nightmares That Haunt Us

Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read this story, and also thanks to all of you who are reviewing! I'm feeling very happy (my friend taught me how to play 2 new songs on my guitar) so I am bound and determined to make this chapter a good one! (and also I'm trying to make up for updating so late -;)

Chapter 9- The Nightmares That Haunt Us

Ryuhou tossed and turned, sweat slowly trickling down his face and drenching his bed. Even though he was asleep, his expressions still showed pain and troubles. His dream was a nightmare; he hadn't been expecting that, especially since the last part of his night with Mimori was an overall good one. In the next room, the same thing was occurring with Mimori. Ryuhou couldn't stand it, he hated this dream, and he wanted to end it, but for some reason, he just couldn't.

In the beginning, he had been with Mimori, and everything was fine. Both of them were little kids again, Ryuhou was actually happy, and was smiling on a normal basis. But then the darkness came and snatched Mimori out of his grasp, and no matter how hard he tried to get to her, she seemed to slip further and further away.

"Mimori!" He shouted with his arm stretched out in front of him as he tried to grab her.

"Ryuhou!" Her voice echoed as she called out his name. He turned around sadly to look at his mother, who wore a comforting smile on her face. He smiled back at her sadly, but before she could say anything, she was brutally murdered.

Right in front of her son. How could the criminal be so fast? Ryuhou's eyes widened, and his pupils dilated, as the blood from his mother poured out and formed a pool around her. The tears fell like waterfalls, each tear containing just as much pain, sadness, remorse, anger and hatred as the one before it. NOTHING he had ever experienced before had been this painful. At least he knew Mimori was safe with her parents, while Ryuhou's mother lay there dead, and the cold blooded murderer standing right before him. This man was unlike any Ryuhou had seen before, this man reminded him somewhat of Zetsuei. He was black and white, with black and white flames emitting from the sides of his arms. He had no pupils, his hair looked like fire as well.

"NOOO!" Ryuhou exclaimed. The land around him dissipated and formed Zetsuei. The man, however, was not phased by this, and easily defeated.

Ryuhou knew it was a dream, but the pain he felt sure wasn't. 'What are you doing? WAKE UP YOU IDIOT!' he yelled to himself mentally, but he couldn't awaken from his slumber. Apparently the dream wasn't done yet….

In Mimori's room, her dream began the same way. She and Mimori were kids again, and once again they were separated. She saw everything that had happened, even though she had left in the car. It was as though she were in two bodies: her real self, the one who had driven away before the death of Ryuhou's mother, and then this body, which seemed to be a ghost looking through a window.

The person who she was now clutched her heart as she watched the man kill Ryuhou's mom. She watched helplessly as Ryuhou screamed in agony. His screams seemed as though they were needles to Mimori's heart, and his tears were slaps in the face. She wanted to destroy this man, who would do such a thing to a child and his mother? She knew how she had died, but she had never known how gruesome it was, especially for Ryuhou.

'I'm beginning to understand how Ryuhou became so cold towards Alter Users…' Her physical self thought. 'But right now I have to wake up!' Her dream went white, as did Ryuhou's. Both of them became hopeful that this was their chance to break free of whatever was binding them to these dreams, but soon after the dream was a pure white, the scenery became that of the present day. This time Ryuhou could see Mimori, but she couldn't see or hear him. She looked around, recognizing what was happening.

"Deja vu?" she said to herself. She clutched her necklace and looked around. "Ryuhou? Ryuhou where are you?" Ryuhou's words echoed through her dreams.

"Go back to the mainland…. You will never be like Scheris….. Stop living in the past and move on…. Take your capabilities and leave…. Miss Kiryu…. Nothing of the sort! But as long as she's in my protection, I must take care f her…. What did you do? Did you use it on her?...What did you tell him?... You idiot!... It's all your fault….. It's all your fault…. All your fault…."

Mimori fell to her knees and covered her ears. "Ryuhou stop saying that! Don't tell me those things! Why must you act so hateful towards me? Do you hate me Ryuhou?"

"No I don't!" Ryuhou said. But of course, Mimori couldn't hear or see him.

"Ryuhou, why must you insist on pushing me away? Why must you act so coldly? Do you honestly feel nothing for me anymore?" She held the necklace close to her chest and closed her eyes and cried. Her tears burned the scenery, and the dream ended.

They both awoke with a start, panting. Both of their hearts were still hurting. Mimori got out of bed and went to the bathroom sink. Cupping her hands with water, she splashed it onto her face. That dream had really affected both of them. It was as though they could feel each other's pain. She made her way to the fridge to find that Ryuhou was already eating a bowl of ice cream and had a cup of steaming coffee next to him.

"Mind if I join?" Ryuhou pulled out a chair for and she got a bowl of ice cream, a cup of coffee and sat down next to him. "I couldn't sleep."

"Me neither. I suppose it's from recent events that we've been through."

"I guess," she yawned and stretched. "What time is it?"

"3:17 am. And we have to be up in 2 ½ hours…."

"But I don't wanna go back to sleep," Mimori pouted.

"But we need to, you never know when the Native Alters are going to attack.."

"But Ryuhou," She said in a sweet voice. "I wanna stay up! The boogieman might be under my bed!"

"Fine, I suppose if you're going to stay up then I might as well stay up too…."

"YAY!" She grabbed the ice cream and refilled both of their bowls. After putting on a pot of coffee, she sat down with him. "Um Ryuhou? What was your dream about?"

Ryuhou stiffened inside, but didn't dare show it. "I would rather not talk about it…" Then he felt it. "Mimori are you getting…."

"….Sleepy again?" she finished with yawn. "Yeah, but I'm not tired at all….. What's going on Ryuhou?"

"I….I don't know…." They both fell to the floor. Their eyelids felt as though they weighed as much as bricks. "This has to be the work of an Alter….. Mimori don't-" He slowly looked over to see that she had already fallen asleep. "No… Mimori, wake up…..Mimori!...Mi….ri….." he felt himself slipping away from the world in which things could be explained with at least a little bit of logic, and crashing headfirst into the world where his memories transformed into nightmares and took over. He finally sighed and joined Mimori in a deep sleep.

Ryuhou appeared before Mimori in a place that was purely white. "So you made it?" She asked. Ryuhou gave her a strange look.

"Are you in my dream?" he asked.

"No, we're in each other's dreams. I think you're right, I think an Alter User is behind this…"

"So how do you plan on getting out?"

Mimori smiled and sweat dropped. "I was hoping you had figured out a way…." He looked at her dully.

"So now what?" right after he said this, the scenery appeared. Mimori changed from her present-day adult figure into her younger self, and watched helplessly as she walked towards the playground of her new school. "Mimori what are you doing! Get back here and help me figure out a plan!"

She couldn't help it, her eyes were glazed over and she was forced to relive her memories right in front of Ryuhou. She tried to fight it but there was nothing she could do. It was as though she were merely a puppet on strings, and her master was using these strings to make her take every step she took and move every way she did. She couldn't even look back at Ryuhou to ask for help, she had absolutely no control over her actions.

"MIRI!" Ryuhou tried to run towards her, but there was a barrier that was blocking him from moving any closer.

She walked to the swing-set and was about to sit on the swings when an older girl came and pushed her. Mimori looked up and recognized the girl as a student in her class. "Can I please sit there?" Mimori asked, a bit intimidated by this girl.

"No! I'm swinging here! Get your own!"

"Mimori looked down at the ground. "Ryuhou…" she whispered as she let a tear fall from her face and onto the ground. In her mind she hated this, she knew Ryuhou was watching her.

"Oh Ryuhou, Ryuhou! Come save me Ryuhou!" The girl mocked Mimori, and the rest of the kids laughed. Ryuhou watched this, getting angrier by the minute.

"Ryuhou will protect me….Ryuhou and Zetsuei will-"

"Oh shut up!" the girl slapped Mimori, and Ryuhou's fuse blew. His heart pounded, and his pupils dilated.

"ZETSUEI!" he summoned him, and the scenery changed. Mimori was back to her adult self, and this time, neither of them knew where they were or what was going on. "Mimori are you ok? Is that what really happened to you?"

Mimori looked down. "It's fine, I'm fine so it doesn't matter."

"It _does _matter," Ryuhou insisted. "Why didn't you do anything to the girl? Why didn't you defend yourself?"

"Because I was just a scared little girl who had been taken away from her only friend in the entire world, my mind wasn't focused in the girl, my mind, and my heart for that matter, was focused solely on you."

Ryuhou was silent for a minute. "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure." They scanned the room and saw that it was some sort of office. The doorknob turned, and Ryuhou got a serious look on his face.

"Get down!" he pulled her down to the ground with him and used his body as a shield in case it was someone who was going to try to harm them. He didn't care if he got hurt, but whoever it was wasn't even going to TOUCH Mimori! She was in his care after all! So he had to protect her!

'Is that the only reason?' Kazuma's voice entered in Ryuhou's thoughts. Ryuhou got that poking feeling again, the feeling that always bugged him when he was around Mimori.

'Yes that is the only reason, it has to be….' He answered himself. After making sure they were hidden, they looked to see who it was. Both of their eyes widened when they saw him. "Father…" Ryuhou whispered.

His father got on the phone, his expression unreadable. Like father like son right? "Hello? I would like to speak to Mr. Kiryu, if possible. Yes I'll hold. Thank you." After a few moments, Ryuhou and Mimori watched intently. "Hello old friend, how are you? I was actually calling to see how Mimori was doing. I see, Ryuhou's in the same condition unfortunately. The ring he bought for Mimori fell off while you were leaving, and he hasn't taken it out of his grasp since you left."

Ryuhou shifted uncomfortably where they were hiding. He didn't like the fact that they were in a memory where his father announced, in front of Mimori, how much he had missed her. She was now giving him a small smile, but then their hiding spot was found.

"Who's there!" Ryuhou's father demanded. Ryuhou stood up with absolutely no fear circulating through his body. "Ahh Ryuhou, I've been expecting you," his father grinned. "Come here son, I have something I want to tell you."

"You aren't my father, my father is dead. You're nothing more than a figment of my imagination created by an idiot Alter User who thinks he can control me."

Ryuhou's father frowned, then transformed into a shadow-like thing. "Pitiful, and here I was hoping I could have some fun…. But there really is something I want to tell you…. It's your fault your family is dead."

"Never say that again," Ryuhou said through gritted teeth. Mimori could tell that his anger was rising. The imposter grinned wider.

"Oh but it's true, you're the one that summoned the Alter User there, the same one that killed your mother. How sad to be killed by your own child…"

"Shut up," he said firmer, his eyes covered in the shadows. "You're wrong."

"Now is that any way to repay her for loving you? Did you hate her that much, Ryuhou, that you had to attract an Alter User to murder her?"

"Shut up! I loved her! She was my mom!"

"So then why did you kill her?"

"SHUT UP!" Ryuhou was surprised when Mimori screamed this. Flames surrounded her body, once again torching her clothes. But she wasn't embarrassed, she had no time to be, and no one could see her through the flames anyway. "Ryuhou's not like that! He might not be the same person he once was but he still has a heart that's beating, and no matter how much he's changed he would never do that to his mother! HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE HIM OF THAT!"

"And what do we have here? A little girl who calls for her 'precious Ryuhou' to save her from danger?"

"Ryuhou's not the only one who's changed," Mimori grinned. "My feelings may not have changed, but I can fight for myself now! And Ryuhou is right…. You're just a figment of my imagination, and therefore there's nothing you can do to harm me! SO LEAVE NOW!" Mimori charged at him full force, the fire that surrounded her was getting bigger as she got closer to him.

"Foolish girl!" He pulled out a dagger and simply held it in front of him. She attacked him and went passed him, and stood there for a while before she realized what had happened. He had evaded the attack, but she hadn't evaded his. On the side of her right upper arm, the blood began to pour out. She winced as the pain finally caught up to her and held her arm. The blood continued to flow, and ran across her fingers as it dripped onto the carpet.

Ryuhou stared in wonder. "How did……MIRI!" He ran over to her. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," she gave him a small smile through her wincing, and he gave her a small smile of relief through his seriousness.

"I've you _ever _lay a hand on her again, I will tear your body limb from limb and separate the pieces to the four corners of the earth."

"My my, that sounds like a threat!" the figure mused.

"Oh no, you can be certain it's no threat- it's a promise!" Zetsuei appeared again, and Zetsuei transformed into his second stage. This one was bigger, more powerful, and ready to kill the imposter who hurt Mimori. He began to glow, however, and so did Zetsuei. He felt himself being pulled away from Mimori and the dream.

"What! What's going on! He shouldn't be able to break the barrier!" The figure seemed very disturbed about this, but not nearly as disturbed as Ryuhou. He wasn't going to dare to leave Mimori alone with that maniac!

"RYU!" Mimori cried.

"MIRI!" he extended his hand, and she extended hers, but to no avail, for he was already slipping back into the other world, the world where he would have to wake up from the nightmares that haunted him, the world in which Mimori was still asleep. He awoke with a start on the floor, Mimori next to him. Through the shirt that she as wearing, he noticed the blood that was seeping through the cloth. It was in the exact same spot where she had been injured when they were both asleep. He stared at her for a while, then noticed another cut forming on her cheek, along with a bruise. "Miri wake up! Miri wake up! MIRIIIIIII!"

well I hope you guys liked it and I'll try to update sooner. See ya!


	10. The Blood Stain

Well anyways hope you liked last chapter now….wow…..THE 10TH CHAPTER!

Chapter 10- The Blood Stain

Ryuhou was unsure of how to deal with the situation. He couldn't exactly go to another HOLY member and insist that there was a Native Alter running around who currently had Mimori in a nightmare where pain was real, but he couldn't make himself fall asleep…

"But I know who can…," he said softly as he began searching. Then he saw exactly what he was looking for. Through his bedroom window, he could see the Native Alter with his eyes closed and grinning. Ryuhou was angered by this, and ran through his window and onto his balcony. He began choking the intruder, and the intruder opened his eyes while trying to breathe. He put his hands on Ryuhou's to try to make Ryuhou let go, but Ryuhou wouldn't budge. In fact, the harder he tried to break free, the tighter Ryuhou's grip got to be.

The Alter shoved his hands in front of Ryuhou's face, and powder flew out. Ryuhou felt himself slipping once again, and the intruder was free of Ryuhou's grip. But that was exactly what Ryuhou had been counting on. He opened his eyes suddenly and, for once, was happy that he was in a nightmare.

"Miri where are you?" He looked around frantically to find Mimori when he spotted her. Her body still had fire surrounding it, but the fire had grown weak, and the man's Alter had her on the ground and was kicking her in the stomach.. She coughed up lumps of blood. She looked at him and smiled softly. She couldn't cry even though she wanted to.

"Ryuhou…." He voice was soft and hoarse from the beating that she was receiving.

"Miri!" he began to run to her, but was stopped by the Alter.

"Why should you do that?" it asked Ryuhou. "All she is is a memory of your past; she is the only thing that binds you to it, so why must you save her? Without her you can move on. Isn't that what you want, Ryuhou? Freedom from your past?"

"Hai," he said, looking at the ground. "That is one thing I want, but this is not the way to achieve that goal, the only way to achieve that is by defeating the man in black and white."

"But don't you see? Even after doing that, she will still remind you of it! So why must you insist on protecting her? All she does is get in the way and mess up, so why keep her around?"

"You're right, she will still remind me of it….and she does get in the way when I fight…."

Mimori's heart felt worse than her body now. She would've much rather have had to endure more beatings than to hear Ryuhou actually _agree_ with the Alter.

The Alter smirked at hearing this. "So your eyes have been opened and you see it my way? Good, now I can cont-" He was silenced because Ryuhou had put his hand on the Alter's shoulder in order to prevent it from getting any closer to Mimori. "What are you doing?"

"You may be right. She gets in the way every time I go to fight that baka Kazuma and always forces me to retreat, and she is one of the chains that bind me to my past… But she is the one chain I'm willing to keep around, because no matter what, Miri is Miri." Mimori smiled, she wasn't sure if she wanted to cry out of happiness or pain. "But that doesn't mean that I'm here to protect her. Not by any means actually." Pain, definitely pain. The small smile she once had faded as soon as it had come.

'Of course, he just came here to do his job, I should've known, so why does it surprise me?' Mimori thought sadly as a single tear began to trickle down her face. But Ryuhou, on the other hand, only grinned as he looked the Alter straight in the eyes.

"I'm not here to protect her," he repeated, "because she no longer needs protecting. I'm just here to help her." Mimori's eyes widened, and she smiled as well. She got up in spite of the pain and waited for the tears to fall from her face to the palm of her hand. Sure enough, as soon as it fell, it formed a fireball that she sent hurling towards the unsuspecting Alter who had his attention focused on Ryuhou. It torched the Alter's back, but the Alter only laughed.

"Do you honestly think that hurts?" He turned his head to look at Mimori and cackled.

"No," Mimori grinned, "but that should," she pointed towards Ryuhou, and the Alter, just like Mimori had expected, turned his head. As if on queue, Ryuhou's fist met with his face as soon as he had turned it.

"Zetsuei!" Ryuhou summoned his Alter, and, though Mimori was badly injured and had lost a lot of blood, she summoned as much energy as she could in order to help Ryuhou. The fire surrounding her body grew again, and she made it surround Zetsuei as well.

"Motto!" they both said. Zetsuei transformed into his second stage, and the flames grew bigger. The Alter gulped. There was something about this that he didn't like.

"How about some sleeping dust!" he blew dust at Zetsuei, but the fire surrounding him served as a shield, and the dust had no effect. "Oh……crap….." He tried to run away, but Zetsuei was already feet behind him. The Alter turned around and pulled out the blood stained dagger he had used on Mimori. He stabbed Zetsuei's arm, but nothing happened to him.

"Baka, his body I armor, no stupid dagger can do anything to him." But the Alter only grinned.

"Who ever said I was trying to hurt your Alter?" Mimori winced as he said this, and Ryuhou looked only to find the stab wound in the spot on the arm where Zetsuei was stabbed. She held her arm and fell to the ground. "When this dagger gets something on it, if that substance remains, it hurts that person even when it's trying to hurt something else. In this case, the girl's body."

"MIRI!" He held her in his arms as she looked at him and smiled gently. Sweat was dripping down her forehead and fusing with the pool of blood that was beginning to form around her. "You're losing too much blood, we need to get you out of here…. Stop fighting, I can do this on my own."

Mimori shook her head. "Iie, I refuse to be the reason you retreat, I refuse to be just some girl in the way.. I'm going to fight by your side, that's what partners do!"

"That's also what friends do…. But friends also don't let their friends get injured, so rest."

"Iie! Motto!" Mimori said stubbornly, sticking her tongue out as the fire the fire surrounding Zetsuei began rising.

"Motto," Ryuhou said softly, and Zetsuei inched forward.

"Motto!" Mimori said again, the flames growing bigger.

"Motto!" Ryuhou shouted as the Alter was backing into a corner. Ryuhou was beginning to like this dream…

"MOTTO!" Both of them shouted. Ryuhou held Mimori in one arm while aiming his other arm towards Zetsuei and the Alter. Mimori's hands were clutched on Ryuhou's jacket. Her body still glowed so Ryuhou, thankfully, couldn't see anything. The Alter was angry because it knew that this was the end.

"I'm not going down without taking someone with me!" It stabbed Zetsuei as hard as it could in the stomach, and was disintegrated moments later, leaving only the dagger. Ryuhou was sweating and Mimori's body still glowed as Zetsuei and the fire surrounding him disappeared into thin air.

"I'm glad that's over, now to get out of her and-" He looked down at Mimori and his eyes widened. Her stomach was bleeding badly, she was definitely going to lose too much blood… "MIRI!"

Ryuhou awoke on his patio with a start, then ran into the kitchen floor where Mimori was laying, but Mimori wasn't moving. The Alter User had gotten away, but that wasn't his top priority. His uniform was stained with her blood, as were her clothes. He was very thankful that he clothes weren't torched in the real world. But he had no time for that at the moment. The gash in her stomach, the bruises covering her body, the cuts on her arms, she was in very bad shape. "MIRIIIII!" he did something he hadn't done since they were kids- he held her as close to him as he could. "You can't die, you aren't supposed to die…. You're the only person left that gave me good memories of my childhood…. We have to get you to a doctor- NOW!"

He picked her up and ran through the halls of HOLY. "Ry-uhou…." She said as she breathed . It was painful for her to do anything. They arrived at the emergency center to find the doctors asleep on the job.

"WAKE UP IDIOTS! GET OFF YOUR BUTTS AND HELP THIS WOMAN!" He slammed one fist on the front desk and the 2 doctors awoke with a start. "SHE NEEDS INTENSIVE MEDICAL ATTENTION NOW!"

"Miss Kiryu!" The doctors said in shock. "What happened to her!"

"That is irrelevant at this point in time now hurry up and get her what she needs!" One of the doctors put her on a stretcher and sent her to the emergency room while the other doctor was setting up the needed equipment. He quickly hooked her up to many wires and blood bags while inspecting her.

Ryuhou waiting patiently for one of the doctors to come outside and inform him of her condition. He came out with a grave look on his face. "What is it?" Ryuhou asked nervously, though not daring to show this to the doctor.

"She's got 3 deep external wounds and a very bad internal wound. She has a rib that almost broke and minor cuts and bruises beyond that. We have no idea how long she'll be in, she's lost a lot of blood and is unconscious right now. It's a good thing you got her here when you did."

"I see, may I go see her?"

"If you like, but the scene isn't very pretty." Ryuhou walked into the room to find the other doctor sewing her stomach. It made Ryuhou hurt inside to see that happening to Mimori. After about an hour, the doctor left, leaving Ryuhou and Mimori alone in the room. He pulled up a seat beside her chair and sighed.

"Why did you have to insist on fighting with me? You could've spared yourself the pain…. Why Mimori….."

A few days passed, and Ryuhou hadn't left the emergency center. Scheris and Cougar had heard about Mimori's injuries and came to see her. Cougar wanted to be the one to stay with her instead of Ryuhou but he and Scheris had to go to work. Her pulse was back to normal, but the bruises looked worse than ever. The internal injuries were almost fully healed. He couldn't sleep very well, every time he would close his eyes he would see her face that was full of pain and shock.. So he decided to watch and wait until she woke up, until he was sure that she was going to be ok. He was just about to nod to sleep when e eyes slowly flickered opened.

:"Mimori!" he said suddenly.

"Ryuhou!" Mimori smiled. "How long have I been out?"

"A few days, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, I was actually dreaming about what you said… about how you said I can't die…"

"I never said that…"

"Yes you did," Mimori insisted. "When we first woke up…"

"No, I found you with those wounds when you were on your bed, you screamed and woke e up. I went in your bedroom and saw that you had those injuries. I carried you from your bed to here, I have no idea how you got your injuries."

"Oh…." Mimori said sadly. "I must have been dreaming then."

"I supposed so…. Hang on I'll be right back." He was gone for about 15 minutes before returning. He was somewhat out of breath but he was trying not to show it. "The doctors said I could take you home, but they'd have to wrap your arms and stomach where the stitches are before you left." He waited outside of her room as the doctors wrapped her stomach and arms. She walked out of the room and together they walked back to their apartment. Ryuhou walked into his room and fell asleep while Mimori walked into her bedroom.

"That's strange…" she said to herself. "My sheets don't have any bllod stains on them…" She walked into the kitchen and saw the coffee pot that held the coffee she had made for them just before they were forced back to sleep. "Didn't I make that….?" She averted her eyes to the floor to find the faint traces of a blood stain. "That is so strange… who could've cleaned this up….and why would Ryuhou lie to me…." She pondered on this for a while, never noticing the blood stained rag that was in the trashcan…

well that's the end, sorry this chapter sucked. I'll do better next time!oh and to teh readers of my other story, i have the next chapter written, but it's on another computer so i have to wait to post is. I have it though...


	11. Motto

Thanks for reviews and reading! I hope to be updating a lot sooner now, I'm hoping to get this one up by tonight, and maybe even start a new story as well. Anyways I really want to thank all of you who have ever reviewed, so thanks to:

Anime-Ghostwriter, AnimeJunkie228, babykitty2270, Baroque Isabella, Bloody Shinobi, Chibi Kitty Sorceress, clyde007, Evilchik, Fionna McKinnon, Golden-eyedwolf842, HikariUsa, HimeItsukaKitto, Inudemoness89, Inuyasha-Fan012, Katsumi01, Kawaii-Akuhei, Kitty-Magic00, KyO and ToHrU are LoVeRs, Lady Da Qiao of Wu, Loyalsoul, Miko of purified souls, Mimori Kiryu, MiraResQNU, Miss Dangerous Sexy, Misteline, Moonlitesadness, Mysti Chan Da Priestess Lady, rpgfan04, Sailor Otaku, Satan Hat, Scented Feathers, Seiko123, Shadow Fox777, Sharon3264, Sicilian Maiden, SilverMoons BlackWings, Simba's Other Daughter, SlipKnoTpUnK5, Snoshadow, Tracy Johnson, Ukiyo, Wretched- Cursed, Yashagrl

And also thank you to those who have taken the time out to read this who are not mentioned in here! Sorry this is such a long a/n but I really wanted you guys to know how much I appreciate your reviews, anyways enough thank you's onto chapter 11!

Chapter 11-Motto

Although she still had the stitched, she insisted on working with Ryuhou at HOLY. Every morning she went to the medical center so she could get her arms and stomach wrapped so her stitches wouldn't re-open. Since the battle, Mimori smiled every time she would think about the dream and would say 'motto' under her breath. Scheris and Cougar had no idea what she was thinking about when she said it, but she would just smile like a little girl. Her abilities had gotten stronger as well. She and Ryuhou had made a good team when she used her Burning Tears as a shield for Zetsuei. She still trained with Ryuhou in the mornings in order to master her Alter ability, and Ryuhou had to admit, she was getting very good…

"Like this?" She asked as she threw the fireballs and torched the targets that Ryuhou had set up.

"Yes exactly like that!" Mimori beamed when he told her that. It made her feel like she was actually doing something that Ryuhou couldn't complain about.

"Motto…" she smiled as she whispered this word to herself. The flames intensified when she smiled and Ryuhou got a serious look on his face.

"Mimori calm down!" he said. "You're making the flames bigger!"

She looked up and the flames died down enough to where Ryuhou could stomp them out.

"Well, I guess I wasn't wrong after all…" Ryuhou knew that voice, and he turned around sharply and glared at the Shell Bullet.

"What do you want Kazuma?"

"The same thing I always want- to annihilate you! But it looks like you aren't my only problem anymore. Apparently your girlfriend was the one that started the fire last time, apparently she's an Alter User…"

"Gee, aren't you smart," Ryuhou said sarcastically while rolling his eyes. "And in no way is she my girlfriend."

"Hey shut up! And if she's not then why did you get mad when I kissed her? Why do you get mad every time I steal her from you?"

"Because she is a princess who does not need to be touched by filth like you. It's my job to help her."

Help… that brought back a thought from when they were in the dream…

"_I'm not here to protect her because she no longer needs protecting. I'm just here to help her."_ Mimori's eyes widened at the thought of this. 'But didn't he say that it was just a dream…? Then why didn't he say protect like he always does…? Why can't he ever tell me how he really feels…' the more she thought about it, the more angry she got. "Why can't you just be honest with me Ryuhou!"

Kazuma and Ryuhou stopped bickering for a moment to look at her. Kazuma snickered. "Looks like you're in trouble Ry-u-hou," He stressed Ryuhou's name.

"Shut up," he muttered to Kazuma. "What do you mean Miri?"

"'Miri?'" Kazuma repeated as he began to laugh. "So you even have a pet name for her? How kawaii!" he laughed harder as he said this, and Ryuhou punched him in the face. This didn't keep him from laughing, though.

"I mean why must you always-!"

"Stop right there!" 7 or 8 HOLY members came out and were ready to attack Kazuma.

"Well as always it seems as though my time with you was cut short so I guess we'll have to make time!" he grabbed Mimori and took off. Kazuma leaped over the wall and kept running through the lost ground. He looked at Mimori, somewhat nervous. She hadn't said a word since she had been captured, she hadn't tried to escape, she hadn't even lifted her head to give him a look. Just then he felt some sort of liquid running over his hand that was carrying Mimori. "What is this…..?" he stopped momentarily and set her on the ground to see what the liquid was. He was shocked at what he saw. "….Blood! H-Hey! Why are you bleeding!" He looked around and held his hands up defensively. "I DIDN'T DO IT I SWEAR!"

"There's no one here…" she said softly, allowing a small stream of blood to emit from her mouth.

"We gotta get you somewhere and find out what's wrong!" Deciding that it wouldn't be good if he carried her the same way he usually had, he picked her up bridal style and ran as fast as he could to his hometown.

"Hey!" Kimishima said (a/n In my story he's not dead!) "Where have you been Kazuma! I've been looking everywhere for you! I found someone who needs work done on their house and- hey, who's that?"

"Nevermind that, I need your help, she's bleeding and I don't know what to do!"

Kimishima got a serious look on his face. "She's bleeding in her stomach right?" Kazuma nodded. "Well have you lifted up her shirt?"

"NO I HAVEN'T YOU PERVERT!" He slapped the back of Kimishima's head.

"I MEANT SO YOU COULD SEE WHY SHE WAS BLEEDING, PERVERT!" He slapped the back of Kazuma's head. He lifted up her shirt enough to where he could see the stitches. "Looks like they've been broken…." Kimishima said in a thoughtful voice.

"So you know what to do?" Kazuma asked, his words full of hope.

"Not a clue!" Kimishima smiled while he scratched the back of his head. Kazuma fell anime style and hit Kimishima in the back of the head again.

"Kazu-Kun! Kazu-Kun!" Kanami ran happily to Kazuma and smiled brightly. "I haven't seen you in a while! Where have y-" She stopped as she looked at Mimori. Her eyes widened and she got a scared and worried look on her face. "What's wrong with her Kazu-Kun? Why is she bleeding Kazu-Kun? Help her Kazu-Kun!" She tugged on his shirt, her eyes beginning to water.

"I'm not sure what to do…" he said sadly.

"You're… going to have to re-stitch me…" she said softly. Sweat was trickling down her forehead, and the blood wasn't gushing out as fast as it was before.

"Gah!" Kazuma and Kimishima got up quickly while looking at each other and sweat dropped. "We aren't good at that! We don't even know how to do that!"

"I do." Kanami stood up and made her hands into fists. "I can re-sew it."

"Hang on a minute Kanami," Kazuma said in a gentle voice. "You sew _clothes_, not people, this is really different."

"Trust me Kazu-Kun, I can do it," she gave him a determined and confident look and went off to get needles and thread. She came back momentarily and asked Kazuma and Kimishima to wait elsewhere. They did as they were told and waited under a tree. Both of them looked straight ahead of them as they waited.

"So who is she?" he asked, not turning his head to look at Kazuma.

"A girl from HOLY."

"WHAAA!" Kimishima turned to look at Kazuma. "Why are you helping the enemy!"

"Because she's not our enemy. I owe her a lot, she's my escape tool from HOLY, and she's important to my mortal enemy. But that baka is too arrogant to admit it. If he isn't careful he'll lose her to someone else."

"Someone like me!" Kimishima grinned and put his thumb to his chest. Kazuma gave his a dull look. "What? You said she wasn't our enemy, and she's very pretty! And besides…" Kimishima gave Kazuma a sly grin, "I know someone _else_ who needs to stop being arrogant and confess his love to someone…"

"If you dare say it, I'll make it to where _you'll _be the one needing stitches!" Kimishima didn't say another word about it. Kanami came moments later with a small smile f relief on her face. "How is she Kanami? Were you able to do it?"

"The bleeding has stopped, and she said I did a good job."

"Is she moving?"

"A little bit, but she can't move very much…."

"Where is she now?"

"I helped her into the house, she's laying down on the floor."

"That's it!" Kimishima said with a happy yet serious look on his face. "I'm moving in with you guys!" Kazuma glared at him again. "WHAT! You said it yourself that he was too arrogant to admit to her that he liked her, so why doesn't she just move on?"

"Because he is my past, my present, and hopefully my future," she said as she stared at the ceiling. "Even if he doesn't feel the same, I never want to leave his side…"

"That's so kawaii," Kanami smiled.

"That's dedication right there!" Kazuma said with streams of tears falling from his eyes.

"If only I could do that…I wouldn't be in as much pain…."

"What do you mean?"

"My Alter ability….the Burning Tears…. If I cry, this entire house would catch on fire… so I can't cry…"

"That's so sad…" Kanami clutched her heart and began breathing harder.

"KANAMI!" Kazuma went to her aid. "Are you ok?"

"Hai, my heart just hurts…."

"Just like mine…"

Meanwhile, Ryuhou was running through the Lost Ground with Cougar. "I don't understand why _you _had to tag along when it's MY woman!" Cougar said a bit defensively.

"She's not yours, not in any way," Ryuhou said coolly.

"Well in no way is she yours either!" Cougar said angrily as he used his Alter to speed up. Ryuhou summoned Zetsuei and had him carry him. Soon he was caught up to Cougar, but Cougar sped up even more. "I'M going to be the one that saves her!"

"You won't touch her!"

"Why do you care so much?"

"I never said I did!" Ryuhou said angrily.

They were both stopped by Kazuma walking slowly towards them. "Kazuya!"

"Kazuma!" Ryuhou corrected Cougar. "Where's Mimori!"

"She's safe, away from you…" he walked closer to Ryuhou. "You know, you'd think that when she's either with you or when she's not with you she'd be happy…." He was now standing beside Ryuhou, and his bangs were covering his eyes. "But no matter where you are, you always hurt her… She's sick of you lying, and if you don't start telling her how you feel then you'll lose her, she's already got a few guys in line waiting."

"A few? A FEW! There is no 'few'! There is only 'ONE', and that 'ONE' is ME!" Cougar said hysterically.

"I don't care about your stupid advice!" Ryuhou spat, completely ignoring Cougar's remark. "You have no idea what she and I have been through, nor do you know or understand either of our feelings! Tell me where Mimori is!"

"I might not know how she feels, but there's a certain friend of mine who can apparently feel her pain, she wants to cry you know, she even told me."

"Shut up!" he said, grabbing Kazuma's shirt.

"Tell ya what," Kazuma grinned. "You and Cougar follow me to her location, you and I will fight, if you win, you get her." He noticed Ryuhou clenching his fists. "I suggest you save your strength, you're gonna need it when you fight me!" Cougar and Ryuhou walked calmly behind Kazuma as he led the way towards Mimori.

They arrived to find Mimori sitting up with a blanket halfway on her and a young girl holding her arms protectively around Mimori's neck as she gave Cougar and Ryuhou a somewhat scared look. "Why did you bring them here, Kazu-Kun?"

"It seems you have a nickname as well," Ryuhou smirked.

"At least I'm happy that someone cares about me enough to _give_ me a nickname! Unlike you who only cares about his status and himself with no regard towards others feelings! You sicken me!"

"If I didn't care then why would I be here?" Mimori's eyes widened as she thought about this.

"Then what about the blood stain?" she asked quietly. Ryuhou looked down for a moment, then looked up and grinned.

"Motto." He then prepared for his battle with Kazuma.

Sorry that it sucked, I'm hoping my nest chapter will have some good stuff in it.


	12. Partners

Thanks guys for reviewing, and- oh my gosh….. I HAVE OVER 100 REVIEWS! Thank you guys so much! This is gonna have some Cougar in it so here we go! (Oh and there's a small spoiler in here if you haven't seen the last few eps)

Chapter 12- Partners

Mimori's eyes shimmered a bit. "Motto…. So it wasn't just a dream… he really did say those things….." her heart was filled with happiness, it was almost too much for her to bear. She thought on this for a minute until the battle began. The ground disappeared and Kazuma's arm transformed while Zetsuei was summoned. Kanami stared in wonder at Kazuma's transformation.

"Kazu-Kun….?" She looked at his arm and looked at Zetsuei. "What are they going to do?"

"They're going to battle…" Cougar said with one of his rare and serious faces.

"Battle?" Kanami repeated, and Cougar nodded his head. "No! Why is Kazu-Kun going to battle him? Are they going to get hurt?"

"Of course they are! That's what it is to do battle…" Cougar said, staring at the two.

"Are you ready!" Kazuma said while grinning.

"Ready when you are!" Zetsuei charged at Kazuma, but he jumped out of the way. Kazuma hit Zetsuei's back , and right after he did so Zetsuei grabbed him with his extensions. He forced him to the ground, and smoke covered the area. Kazuma got up, brushing the debris off of his shirt and pants. Zetsuei attacked him through the smoke, and while Zetsuei was hitting him, Kazuma decided to strike.

"SHOCKING FIRST BULLET!" He hit Zetsuei in the face, causing the mask that covered half of his face to crack. Kazuma grinned and Zetsuei punched him, causing his mouth to bleed. He smeared his blood on his face and glared at Ryuhou, who simply smirked. "I'll wipe that smug look right off your face!" Ignoring Zetsuei, Kazuma ran towards Ryuhou at full speed. He jumped in the air and was about to punch him until Zetsuei intervened. The wind swirled around them as Kazuma still tried to get through Zetsuei to Ryuhou. The wind made a mini sandstorm and everyone was having a hard time seeing. Everyone except for Cougar, that is, for he put on his pink sunglasses and pulled his bang out from under it, smiling the entire time.

"This is getting interesting…" he smirked as he watched Kazuma and Ryuhou fight. Kanami and Mimori couldn't see what was happening but Cougar saw everything perfectly. Every time Kazuma would get a punch in Ryuhou would come back with one that was even better and vise versa. They had stopped using their Alters because they both felt more satisfaction doing it the way that non Alters would. They would hit each other, grunting every time because of the amount of force that they were putting into each blow. Then they would grin smugly at the sight of their opponent losing blood. Ryuhou's knuckles were bleeding, and Kazuma had a bloody head from where he had head-butted Ryuhou. Kanami had dug her face into Mimori's stomach saying that she couldn't watch them anymore. Just then, a gang of Native Alters appeared, and they all grinned broadly.

"Well well, what do we have here?"

"Looks like a couple of idiots to me, coming into our territory like this."

"I say we teach them a lesson," one said, cracking his knuckles.

"Are these friends of yours?" Ryuhou said angrily to Kazuma.

"Do I look like I would hang around weaklings like them?"

"Well, you know what they say, 'Birds of a feather stick together', right?"

"Hey shut up! I'm stronger than you are!" Kazuma was getting angry.

"Tell ya what!" Another Alter User said, "If you leave us the two pretty girls, you 3 can leave quietly!" This got Kazuma, Ryuhou, and Cougar angry.

"NO ONE WILL TOUCH MY MINORI!"

"MIMORI!" Ryuhou corrected him.

"If you dare touch Kanami I will never forgive you! I will make sure that you die painfully and slowly!"

"Oh, that sounds like a threat! Well, we can't have any of that now, can we?" One of the men extended his hand, and the particles around him disappeared and an archeress appeared, her bow extended and her beautiful pink hair flowing in the wind. The others summoned their Alters as well; one of them had control over the ground, another one could form a fog, one was able to use sound as a weapon, and there were a few others that hadn't yet released their Alter power yet. All Ryuhou knew was that he and Kazuma barely had enough energy to summon their Alters again, much less summon their more powerful forms. "If you won't give them to us, then we'll take them ourselves!"

"Over my dead body!" the three of them said. Kazuma and Ryuhou forced themselves to summon their Alter powers, and Cougar's legs transformed.

"SHOCKING FIRST BULLET!" he shouted as he kicked one of the Alters in the stomach. The Alter looked surprised, but then he grinned. Grabbing Cougar's legs using vines that were coming out of his body, he shocked Cougar for as long as he could until Kazuma stepped in.

He knocked the Alter away from Cougar, who got up limply. "Geez, you never change do you!" Kazuma demanded. Cougar simply grinned as he scratched the back of his head. Kazuma rolled his eyes and sighed. "Just get up and keep fighting, if you can that is."

"OH I _CAN_!" Cougar got up quickly and ran head on into the Alter. Kicking him into the side of a small nearby mountain, the Alter was knocked out. There were still more to go, however, and one of the Alter's friends was angry. He made the ground shake and move, and ended up tearing the ground in half: and Mimori and Kanami were right in the middle of it. Mimori and Kanami staggered and swayed, trying to keep their balance as the earth shook, but to no avail. Just as they were about to fall, Mimori felt strong hands catch her. "I've got you!" Cougar said as he winked at her.

"Thank you Cougar!" Mimori smiled. She looked at Ryuhou, who was busy in battle. She saw one of the Alters try to come up from behind, but there wasn't really anything that could surprise Ryuhou. He smirked and turned around and had Zetsuei attack the man. Blood came pouring out of the man's stomach, and his pupils were dilated.

"Yah yah! Don't look so smug!" Kazuma said in an annoyed voice.

Another Alter looked at Mimori and Kanami and grinned. 'What can I do…' he thought maniacally. The Alter's shadow began moving and dragged Cougar, who was still holding Mimori and Kanami, halfway into the ground, successfully stopping Cougar in his tracks.

"Run for it Minori!" Cougar shouted.

Kanami tried to help Mimori run, but Kanami wasn't very strong or fast, and Mimori was too weak to run. Another Alter grabbed a sword and jumped into the air, lunging for the girls. "I'LL KILL YOU BOTH!"

This REALLY got Ryuhou and Kazuma's attention! They both turned around and, leaving their current Alter, both kicked the crap out of the guy who had just made that statement. Kazuma pulled him up by the hair and gave him a dangerously wicked smile. "If you dare touch Kanami, you won't have fingers to touch with anymore. Got it?" The Alter nodded quickly, then smiled just as vilely as Kazuma had.

"You should really pay attention, bakas!" Ryuhou and Kazuma turned around quickly to see what he was talking about. They had completely forgotten about the leader with the archeress as his Alter. She had already shot an arrow at him, and as soon as it got within range of them, the arrow exploded, causing dust to go flying everywhere. Both of them were stunned and fell backwards. Ryuhou coughed up blood while Kazuma looked madder than ever. Both of their shirts had been torn; Kazuma was now wearing a sleeveless shirt, while the buttons on the top of Ryuhou's HOLY uniform had been broken and the long sleeved shirt had been ripped to shreds. It fell off with ease, revealing a black muscle shirt.

The archeress shot once more, but this time Ryuhou and Kazuma stationed themselves behind a rock. The rock blew up and formed many smaller rocks which hit Kazuma and Ryuhou in the arms and face. Again she pulled back an arrow, and this time there was nowhere for them to shelter themselves. Just as the arrow was about to hit, a familiar cry was heard.

"SHOCKING FIRST BULLET!" Ryuhou looked to see how Kazuma had gotten somewhere else so quickly, but when he looked beside him he saw that Kazuma was still beside him, staring hard at where the shout had emitted. Ryuhou looked over there as well to find that it was none other than Cougar. He had kicked the archeress, and the arrow, which resulted in it blowing up on him. His HOLY uniform, like Ryuhou's, had been torn and ripped, and the top had likewise fallen off to reveal a white tank top. The top of his eyelid was bleeding, and the other eye was drooping. Blood was flowing silently down his neck, and he glared at the archeress. "Don't you dare touch my Minori!"

"Cougar!" Kazuma yelled. "Get them out of here now!" Cougar nodded and once again grabbed the girls.

"Do you honestly think that you'll get away so easily!" The Alter laughed, and the archeress drew her arrow back. She aimed and shot straight for them, but Ryuhou and Kazuma weren't going to allow that. Zetsuei used his tentacles to get close enough to the arrow to where it would blow up before it reached them. He was injured, but it was only minor.

"Hurry up Cougar!" Kazuma said, anger rising in his voice.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay and help?" Cougar asked.

"Just go! Me and that idiot over there have this covered!"

Cougar nodded and turned around and, before leaving, said softly, "Good luck…otouto-kun." He ran off without another word, carrying both of the girls with him.

Kazuma was relieved when they left, he didn't have to worry about Kanami or Mimori anymore. Ryuhou seemed relieved too, but wasn't as open about it as Kazuma was. Ryuhou and Kazuma hid behind another rock and looked at each other with serious looks on their faces.

"So how do we do this?"

"I don't know," Ryuhou said as a bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face. "Either way it looks like we don't stand a chance if we try to do this separately…."

"What are you saying!" Kazuma demanded with a very confused look on his face.

"I'm saying that it's best if we……. If we………" He gulped as he was preparing to finish his sentence.

"You know what?" Kazuma asked. "Don't even finish it, I don't ever wanna hear that sentence come from your mouth or mine. But I suppose we have to do…. _that_…. If we're gonna beat these guys…." He grunted as he held out his hand carelessly. "the P-word?"

Ryuhou just as reluctantly shook his hand and rolled his eyes. "The P-word…." He muttered. "Only temporarily though! And don't think this changes anything!"

"I was about to say the same to you! Well then, shall we?"

"One…" Ryuhou said.

"Two…" Kazuma continued.

"THREE!" they both finished as they ran out from behind the rock. The archeress had her arrow pointed directly at Kazuma and fired. Zetsuei again used his tentacles to stop the arrow. Another Alter began to fight them; the same one that used his shadow to stop Cougar earlier. He grabbed Zetsuei and pulled him halfway into the ground.

Kazuma got mad and punched the ground that was surrounding Zetsuei, allowing him to break free. "Don't you even _think_ about beating Ryuhou!" Kazuma said defensively. "That's MY job!"

"We'll beat whoever we want, whenever we want!"

"You know…" Kazuma glared at the Alter Users while giving them the same dangerousy wicked smile he had previously given them., "It's Alters like you that are the reason that the stupid HOLY branch was formed in the first place! Now not only are you making yourselves suffer, but innocent families and Alter Users in the Lost Ground as well! It's people like you that disgust me… and you know what… it's people like YOU that I wanna kick the crap out of!" He jumped towards the lead Alter User, and, after transforming his Alter, Hit him as hard as he could in the stomach. A mixture of spit and blood flew from his mouth, and he fell onto his back, unable to breathe. The archeress disappeared, and, while the few Alters that were left stared in wonder at Kazuma, Ryuhou decided to use Zetsuei's tentacles to squeeze the breath out of each of them to make them pass out. All of the Alter powers disappeared, and Ryuhou and Kazuma took a few moments to admire a job well done.

Kazuma smiled proudly for a few moments, until he saw one more Alter behind Ryuhou. "RYUHOU!"

Ryuhou turned around, but he was a minute too late. The Alter had begun his attack. He let out a high pitched sound, and Kazuma and Ryuhou fell to their knees, clamping their hands over their ears.

'It hurts…' they both thought, 'It hurts so much!'

Meanwhile, Kanami suddenly clutched her heart, then was having trouble deciding whether to clutched her heart or cover her ears.

"What's wrong, Kanami?' Mimori asked.

"So much pain!" She said. "It hurts, so much… My ears hurt so much!"

'Ryuhou…' Mimori thought. She gripped her hand around her necklace and closed her eyes. 'Ryuhou… are you okay? Ryuhou…. Please hear me…. Ryuhou…. RYUHOU!'

Ryuhou's eyes widened, and a memory played in his mind…

_Mimori and Ryuhou had gone to their favorite spot in his back yard, a spot that none of the adults could reach. Ryuhou tried to summon Zetsuei, but nothing that he could do worked. Ryuhou sat down sadly and angrily._

_"I can't do it," He said, stroking his hand through his hair in an aggravated way. _

_"Don't say that!" Mimori said, running and sitting next to him. "You can do anything! You're Ryuhou! You're an Alter User!"_

_"I don't want to be an Alter User… I hate this…. I can't even control it!" _

_"Don't say that!" Mimori said in a determined way. "You're lucky to be an Alter User! Something like that is rare, I'm sure if you tried one more time-"_

_"But I'm tired of trying!" Ryuhou sighed. "Nothing I try is working!" Mimori smiled and walked over to him. Kneeling down to him, she took off her necklace and put it in his hands. _

_"Then use this to help you," she said. Ryuhou looked at it for a moment, then smiled smally and accepted it. He held it and looked at it, and felt his heart beating faster. He smiled when he looked at it, and looked at Mimori. Mimori blushed a little, and her eyes widened. Ryuhou's heart seemed to stop when she blushed, and immediately he closed his eyes in contentment and the land around him disappeared. Zetsuei appeared seconds later, and Ryuhou gave the necklace back to Mimori. Although he had given it back, his heart was still beating very fast.For a while he wasn't sure if his heart was ever going to go back to normal…_

As Ryuhou thought of this, his heart began beating faster. It was getting harder for him to breathe, partially because of the pain, but mostly because of that memory. 'Mimori…' He thought with a determined look on his face, 'Let me borrow your necklace again…' He closed his eyes and saw the image of her necklace. He was concentrating so hard on the image that when he opened his eyes he saw a faint trace of the image. "Zetsuei!" He shouted. Zetsuei used his extensions in order to cover the Alter's mouth.

Kazuma and Ryuhou grinned at each other and both grabbed his shirt. Their hands were covered in their own blood, so the Alter's shirt was now stained with Kazuma and Ryuhou's blood. Their ears were still bleeding, but it wasn't as bad now. With a few last punches from the both of them, his nose began bleeding and the Alter passed out. Both of them carelessly let him go and began breathing hard and holding their sides.

"Had those two girls…." Kazuma said with one breath, "…not been here…"

"Then we could've… fought harder.. from the beginning…" Ryuhou finished. With a few more breaths, the two of them passed out.

'Miri…' Ryuhou thought softly before closing his eyes.

'Kana…mi…' Kazuma thought before he too drifted off to sleep. Their bangs were sweaty, making the tips of their bangs sharp, and their bangs were in their eyes as they slept. They had blood stains all over their bodies, and the blood had stopped flowing out of their ears as they took a well-deserved rest.

Well, there it is! Gomen! Sorry it took so long, I'm going to start updating a lot more! Ja!


	13. Casts the Only One

YAY CHAPTER 13!

Chapter 13- Casts (The Only One)

"So you're sure you want to go back?" Cougar asked. He had Mimori on his back and Kanami in his arms. Mimori nodded. "Then HANG ON TIGHT!" He laughed sadistically and ran faster. Mimori had to tighten her grip around his neck and shut her eyes to keep the wind from hurting them or drying them out. Kanami had a worried look on her face; both she and Mimori were worried.

Meanwhile, Ryuhou and Kazuma were fast asleep on the ground. Even though they were asleep, they could still feel the pain in their dreams. One of the Alters got up and brushed the blood off of his mouth. He looked at the two passed out Alters and grinned vilely. "Bakas, thinking you could mess with me…" Out of his fingertips came vines, which he used to constrict around them slowly. They were in too deep of a sleep to wake up from their slumber, and that was just what this Alter needed. He clenched his fist and the vines tightened. Both Kazuma's and Ryuhou's breathing became irregular, and, subconsciously, they knew what was going on.

'What… is this…?' Kazuma thought.

'My body… I can't breathe…'Ryuhou whispered mentally.

"You're going to die now…" the Alter grinned from ear to ear. "And after I kill you, I'm going after your friends for even thinking that they could take me on.

Just then, a firewall formed between the Alter and his would-be victims. The vines were torched, and the Alter pulled his hand back in pain. He looked around, and found the other three from before. The guy was helping the older girl stand up by putting her arm over his shoulder, while the younger girl stood looking sadly at the two injured fighters.

"Just in time!" he said despite the fact that his hand had been burned. "Saves me the trouble of having to hunt you down!" Mimori narrowed her eyes.

"You won't be hurting anyone!" Her eyes averted to Ryuhou and Kazuma. 'Were we too late?' She looked down at her necklace. Her eyes trickled and shimmered until finally her Burning Tears flowed down her cheeks. She caught them in her hands and hurled them at the Alter. His clothes were on fire, and he was now rolling on the ground as he tried to diminish the flames. After he had finally done this, he got up and wiped the dirt off of his shirt, Cougar punched him, successfully knocking him out.

Mimori, on the other hand, had already limped her way to Ryuhou. She fell to her knees and looked at him. "Ryuhou… Ryuhou wake up! Wake up Ryuhou!" She fought back as more tears threatened to fall. She looked at his ears, his shirt, his pants, everything had blood on it. How had she not noticed before? She scolded herself for this, and her will to fight against herself grew weaker. She used her index and middle finger to check for his pulse on his neck. 'His pulse is low… he's lost a lot of blood… at least a full quart…. Ryuhou why did you push so hard?' She hung her head and began fighting back her tears once more.

"What can we do?" Kanami asked.

'There's nothing I can do for him, nothing at all…' Mimori scolded herself. 'I don't have an Alter that can heal like Scheris… maybe she is better for him….' Her heart began to ache, she didn't want to admit it, but had Scheris been there instead of her, Ryuhou would be better by now. 'No stop it!' She told herself mentally. 'Stop thinking like that! There's got to be something I can do!' Cougar stepped forward.

"Minori can you walk?" He asked in a serious tone.

"I can try… Why?"

"Help me get them up." Slowly, she helped Cougar get both Kazuma and Ryuhou onto their feet. Kazuma had one arm around his right shoulder while Ryuhou had one arm around his left. Kanami was on Kazuma's side while Mimori, though weak, was helping Cougar on Ryuhou's side. She had his other arm around her shoulder as she limped. 'Things are a lot different now, aren't they Ryu?'….

_Ryuhou and Mimori were running from his dog. His dog was very playful, and since Ryuhou and Mimori were kids, the dog looked really big and weighed a lot, too much for them to lift. He was also very, very fast. No matter what Mimori and Ryuhou tried to do, the dog would always catch up to them. Finally, they decided to hide behind Biggie._

_"There's no way he'll be able to see us behind Biggie!" Ryuhou whispered while laughing giddily. Mimori put her hands over his mouth to listen for his dog. _

_"Don't say anything, don't breath very loud," She said seriously, removing her hand from his mouth. Ryuhou only nodded with as much seriousness as she had shown._

_Soon they heard a twig snap softly, and they could hear the dog sniffing. "He can smell us!" Ryuhou mouthed. He pointed to nearby trees and shrubs. Mimori nodded, and they both took off for a better hiding spot. His dog, of course, caught up to them, and tackled Ryuhou. Ryuhou was taken aback by this and couldn't react in time. He fell to the ground, but not before getting scratched by twigs. His dog was licking his wounds, which was burning him, and he had his hand covering his wound now, so his hand was burning his cheek as well._

_"Let me see," Mimori stated. He slowly removed his hand to reveal that his cheek was bleeding. Her eyes widened, and she reached in her back pocket and pulled out a bandage._

_"Do you carry those around all the time?" Ryuhou asked as Mimori began unwrapping the bandage._

_"Yep!" Mimori smiled. "I want to be a doctor when I grow up!"_

_"I'm sure you'll do great at it!" Ryuhou smiled as well. "You're the only girl that can help me!"_

_"What about your mom?" Mimori asked._

_"Oh…uh, she doesn't count! Miri is the only girl that can ever help me!"_

_"I'm glad!" she laughed softly. "Here." She pressed the bandage gently against his cheek, and both of them blushed. "Um… t-there you go..." Mimori stammered. Ryuhou's dog licked both his and Mimori's cheeks, so the tension was broken by laughter._

'If I asked you that question today, would you respond the same way? Or would you call it childish nonsense?' She asked herself bitterly.

They had walked for hours in silence. Cougar had said a few things here and there, but Mimori wasn't listening. She was too wrapped up in her thoughts. 'He's cold, then he's warm; he won't look at me, then he saves me; I annoy him, and yet he gets mad when Kazuma takes me… Just tell me how you really feel Ryuhou!' Mimori wasn't paying attention, and she tripped over her own shoes. She waited for the pain to come, but was surprised when she felt a strong grip grasp her wrist and pull her up again. When she looked behind to see who it was, Ryuhou was awake.

"Pay more attention, Mimori," He said quietly. She was glad he was awake, but it was obvious that he was suffering a major loss of strength because of his blood loss. She began to put his arm over her shoulder once more, but he replied with a quick "I don't need your help." Mimori gave him a stubborn look and forcer his arm over her shoulder. "I said I don't-"

"I'm the only girl that can help," She smiled. "Miri is the only girl that can help." He too thought back to that memory and looked away. He felt his side being poked again by that imaginary stick. Cougar and Kanami, on the other hand, had absolutely no clue why Mimori was talking in 3rd person, or why she had said that.

"I suppose we leave him to you," Cougar smiled at Kanami. Kanami nodded as Cougar helped her get the unconscious Kazuma into the house. He came out moments later to Ryuhou and Mimori with a grin on his face. "Ready?" Both of them nodded, and they started back towards headquarters.

The sun had set by the time they arrived back, and everyone was relieved to see that they were ok. At least that's what they thought. Only Cougar knew that Ryuhou had lost a lot of blood, and that Mimori was still very weak. They requested to go to their room and walked/limped away before hearing a reply. Scheris was going to run after them, but Cougar got in the way.

"They need to rest for a while… Tell ya what; we'll go see them in a couple of hours okay?" Scheris gave him a poutful face but agreed anyway.

Mimori leaned against the doorway with her eyes closed as she slowly turned the knob. She hadn't noticed how heavy her eyes were until that moment. Her eyes burned, telling her to collapse, and she followed orders. Ryuhou's body seemed to be saying the same thing, for he too collapsed onto the floor. Although they had fallen down and weren't actually awake, they were not asleep either. They couldn't move, couldn't talk, couldn't even open their eyes, but they could still hear everything around them. It was as though they were in limbo. They weren't sure how much time had elapsed, but some point later there were a few soft knocks on the door.

"Ryuhou?" One voice asked.

"Minori?" Another voiced called. The door slowly creaked open, and that was soon followed by a shriek.

'Who's screaming?' Mimori asked herself. 'Why are they screaming?' She knew both of those voices, but her mind had become detached from her body. She couldn't place the voices. She heard someone running very, very fast. Some time after that, she felt herself being lifted. 'What's going on... Who are these people?' Even her thoughts sounded distant. She felt a small poking into her arm and hand as she was laid down on some unknown location. 'That… kinda hurts…' Her head swirled, she could feel something being pumped into her. 'What are they doing to me…?' She could also feel something force her stomach to open up. She screamed mentally. 'Why are they doing this to me?'

Ryuhou could feel these things, too. 'What's being forced into my body…?' They heard footsteps fading, and then something being pulled across the floor. They then heard a woman crying and a man sighing heavily from time to time. 'Why's she crying?'

Time had passed, they weren't sure how much more. Ryuhou's bed was soaked in tears. "You knew about this, didn't you?" A woman choked.

The man sighed once more. "If they had wanted medical attention, they would have asked for it, that was their choice, not mine."

The chair had screeched once more, and rapid footsteps were heard, followed by another chair being moved across the floor. "You idiot!" The girl screamed. "If you would have told us, then they wouldn't be as bad as they are right now! Ryuhou would be better!" The girl broke down and there were muffled sounds of punches.

"I know, don't you think I feel as bad as you do?"

"You should feel worse! It's your fault! Baka…Baka… Baka…" After the girl said each 'baka' there would be a muffled hitting sound.

"I know that, and I do. I take full responsibility," the man said seriously. One of them had fallen to their knees and was hitting the floor, but neither Ryuhou nor Mimori knew who it was.

Soon another pair of footsteps had entered the room. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave," A female's voice ordered. "These patients need their rest."

'……Patients? So that's where we are… But who are those two?' Mimori asked herself. Moments after two sets of footsteps faded, the third pair had walked her way over to them and stuck something in their arm. It was a small poke, and they could barely feel it. 'Anesthetics….' Mimori acknowledged, already knowing what it was. Her mind began to rest, and soon she was asleep.

Daylight had shined through, and Mimori's eyes flickered for a few moments. The sunlight hurt her eyes; it felt like she hadn't seen the sun in days. Her head tossed and turned as she moaned. Someone pressed their hands against her bedside and gasped eagerly. She blinked a few more times until her vision cleared to see that it was Straight Cougar.

"Minori I'm so glad you're alright!" He smiled brightly.

"It's Mimori," She whispered. 'So it was Cougar… then the other person was…' As if on instinct, her head turned. She saw Ryuhou lying in a bed next to hers, and the blue haired Scheris had her head on the edge of the side of his bed, fast asleep. Mimori also saw the bags under her eyes. She looked once more at Cougar and noticed that he also had bags under his eyes. 'They've been worried…' She sat up slowly and clutched her stomach. She could feel the new stitches that had been sewn. 'So that's what that pain was, they forced open my old stitches.'

She slowly, and weakly, got out of bed and walked over to Ryuhou's bed. Taking her bed sheet with her, she placed it around Scheris and pulled up her own chair. She sat on the other side of his bed and Cougar sat next to her.

Ryuhou, too, had woken up, but he was still in that limbo that he had begun in. He had heard Mimori whisper that last comment. 'What is it about this that reminds me so much of my past?' he thought to himself. 'That's right… Miri was there that time, too…'

_It had finally happened. Their parents knew it was just a matter of time until it had happened. Mimori and Ryuhou had climbed Biggie once again, and this time Ryuhou fell out and couldn't summon Zetsuei in time. Mimori freaked out and had climbed down as quickly as she could. Ryuhou was still conscious, but he was in a lot of pain. Mimori helped him up and he had his hand on her shoulder as he hopped back to their parents._

_"RYUHOU!" Their parents shouted. They rushed to the hospital where they had given Ryuhou anesthetics. The pain had numbed and he had fallen asleep. He couldn't feel anything, and he didn't dream anything. When he finally opened his eyes, the sun was out, and he figured it was the afternoon. His vision cleared, and he saw Mimori's face mere feet from his. She was watching him sleep intently, and when he opened his eyes she jolted back out of shock._

_"Miri what is it?" Ryuhou asked in a confused way._

_"Oh," She smiled, "I was just watching you sleep was all." Ryuhou could feel his face turn red._

_"How kawaii!" His mother beamed, aiming her video camera at his face. Ryuhou looked at her, he hadn't noticed that there were other people besides him and Mimori. "Smile for the camera, Ryuhou!" She laughed, as did the rest of the adults. Ryuhou replied by putting his hand in front of his face, obviously embarrassed. He averted his eyes to his leg, which now had a green cast on it._

_"Here!" Mimori said, opening a permanent marker. She stuck her tongue out and concentrated as she wrote something on his cast. When she was done, she closed the marker and smiled with pride. "There we go!" Ryuhou leaned forward to see that Mimori had written 'MIRI' in big letters and 'Get well soon!' in smaller letters. She had also drawn a chibi face with the chibi sticking it's tongue out._

_"My turn!" Ryuhou's father stood up and requested the marker from Mimori. She gladly handed it over and his father purposefully pressed harder onto his cast as he signed it._

_"Ow, Father!" Ryuhou whined. "That hurts!" He closed one eye in pain. His mother zoomed her camera in so she could see his face better. Everyone laughed at the face he made, and even though he was in pain, he was happy that everyone was laughing._

After recalling this memory, he smiled faintly. "Miri…" he whispered. He heard a small gasp, and his eyes flickered open sleepily. He saw a blurred image of Mimori leaning over him with a tint of red in her cheeks, and as the image became clearer, he too was having to fight the blood rushing to his cheeks. He shifted uncomfortably as Mimori sat back up with her back against the chair.

"You weren't dreaming of her, were you?" Cougar demanded defensively.

"No, I wasn't… I just heard her talking was all…" he replied. Hey, technically it wasn't a dream, right? Right!

Scheris had also bolted awake, and she rubbed her eyes. Her face formed into a smile, and she wrapped her arms around Ryuhou's neck. "Ryuhou I'm so glad you're okay!" She sounded very relieved.

"Yes, we all are!" Mimori agreed, a faint trace of pink still on her cheeks. "It's just," everyone looked at her now, and she looked away to hide her face, "too bad you don't have a cast."

--------------------------------

There we go! Hope you liked it!


	14. I Won't Go Believe

Yay Chapter 14!

Chapter 14- I Won't Go (Believe)

Ryuhou was hospitalized for a few more weeks before they finally let him out. Mimori had been allowed to go 4 days after the incident, but the doctors advised her not to do anything too straining. After finally regaining all the blood he had lost, and a few more hearing tests, Ryuhou was allowed to leave, and he was more ready than ever. He unlocked the door to find Mimori already there waiting.

"'Bout time they let you out," she smiled. "Everyone was starting to freak out. There's a get well card from the Commander on the table."

"I'll read it later…" Ryuhou sat on the couch next to her. "You know…" he said seriously, shifting uneasily into the cushion. "Kazuma said something to one of the Alters when we were fighting them… Something about how Alter Users like that disgusted him, and that they were the reason HOLY was needed in the first place…" Mimori looked at him, obviously taken aback. Kazuma might have given her what she needed to change his mind about Alter Users in the Lost Ground! Ryuhou noticed this look on her face. "I'm confused, Mimori." He looked at her, and for once didn't try to cover up his confusion. Kazuma bugged him, and what he had said that day had really gotten to him.

"Well," Mimori said, "I guess that maybe you were a little off about your thoughts on Alter Users in the Lost Ground."

"Maybe… but that doesn't mean I'm not going to kill Kazuma, he's done enough to me already."

"Then what does that mean?"

"It just means I was wrong, it doesn't change anything, my job is my job."

"So, even after you admit that you're wrong, you still won't change what you're doing?" Mimori asked sadly.

"Of course not! To change now would be idiotic! The way I do things works, so I'm going to keep it that way."

"Maybe for you… But what about the people you take? What you're doing is no better than Kazuma taking me, only you're taking a lot more people!"

"It's very different!" Ryuhou protested. "You're a princess, they're criminals!"

"Forget that I'm a princess! I'm so sick of that! And just who labeled them as criminals? Half of the people who get punished are innocent bystanders! Is that fair to them?"

"HOLY is doing what is best for society, in order to keep the peace."

"Peace?" Mimori repeated. "What peace? There's chaos all throughout the Lost Ground! You had to go through it a few weeks ago! And it's not what's best for society, it's what the leaders of HOLY have convinced everyone!"

"And what would you have done if you were in their position?" Ryuhou demanded. "You seem to know all the answers, what would you have done?"

Mimori thought about this. "I don't know," she finally answered, "But I wouldn't have taken innocent people and hurt them in the process!"

"You should really pick which side you're on, Miss Kiryu," He said coldly as he stood up from the couch. Her eyes started welling. 'Crap, not again…'

"So we're back to 'Miss Kiryu', huh? Is that my punishment?" She asked with such hurt in her voice that it made Ryuhou hurt as well. She stood up as well. Her heart was aching badly; it took everything in her to keep her voice from cracking. "Since when did we have sides? When was this ever about sides?"

"Since the Alter users began hurting people."

"You're an Alter User. Does that make you just like Kazuma? Or those guys that attacked us?" Ryuhou, now very angry, backed Mimori into a corner.

"Don't you _ever_ compare me to him or them!" He spat, and for the first time, Mimori was actually afraid of him, and that made her hurt worse than ever before. "And if you didn't notice, the whole reason I fought them was to protect you."

"Was it for me?" She asked, finally getting the strength to stand straight. "Or was it for your precious job?" Her eyes were shimmering; he was relieved that she had been able to contain her tears. She walked past him and ran out of the apartment. What had hurt him the most, however, was the fear he saw in Mimori's eyes. He had never shown so much anger towards her, let alone had he ever allowed it to overcome him.

"She was truly afraid of me…" He said softly as he dwelled on her image. "She was actually afraid of me…." He said, now angry at himself as he punched the wall. He didn't know what to do, he couldn't go after her when she was like that, she would either burn HOLY down, or he would feel worse when he'd see her face. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at the card on the table. He also saw a one more envelope, and he now went to look at it. "….An invitation?" He opened the envelope to see that he had been invited to a royal party in the mainland. He threw the invitation down carelessly. "I won't go."

Meanwhile, Mimori had run as quickly as she could out of HOLY and was now running much slower on the streets. 'Ryuhou… do you hate me now?' She stopped running and put her hands on her knees and began breathing harder. After finally catching her breath, she pulled out her own envelope from her back pocket. 'Father is the one hosting the party; I should call and let him know that I'm going….' She went to a pay phone (a/n: because I really don't know if she has a cell phone or not -;) and dialed her dad's number.

"Hello?" A familiar voice answered.

"Hi Father!" Mimori smiled.

"Hello Mimori!" the other end chuckled. "Did you and Ryuhou get my invitations?"

"Hai, I'm going to be there!"

"Good, good. What about Ryuhou?" Mimori's grip around the phone tightened.

"I'm not sure… I didn't talk to him about it."

"I see… well, either way I look forward to seeing you there. Bye. Love you."

"Love you too. Bye." She hung up the phone gently. 'Will he be there?' she wondered about this for a while before realization dawned on her. 'A dress… my clothes are at home!' She slowly and reluctantly turned around and headed for home.

Ryuhou sat at the kitchen table staring at the invitation. He was thinking a lot about this; it troubled him. 'Is Mimori going to be there?' He asked himself. There was a knock at the door, and he got up eagerly. He opened the door slowly, but it wasn't who he thought it was.

"Hey Ryuhou!" The blue-haired girl beamed.

"Hey Scheris," He said, slouching somewhat in disappointment. :Look, now really isn't a good time, so-"

"What is it?" Scheris asked, knowing that there was something bothering him. "What's wrong?" She looked into his eyes, trying to figure it out.

"It's nothing, I just really need to be alone right now," he insisted. "I'll see you later." He shut the door without waiting for her reply. Once again he sat back at the table, staring at the invitation. Again he heard someone at the door, only this time, the door gently and quietly opened to reveal Mimori trying to look as calm as possible.

Mimori disappeared into her closet and came back with a bag of what looked to be clothes. Ryuhou simply watched her as she purposefully avoided looking at him. He watched as she entered, he watched as she went to her closet, and he finally stood up when she was about to leave. He grabbed her wrist softly. "Mimori where are you-"

"Please let me go," She whispered.

"Where are you going?" He asked again, more stubbornly this time.

"Let me go," She tried to pull her arm away, but his grip only tightened.

"Where are you-"

"Will you let me go or do I have to cry my way out?" Mimori asked softly. Even though she was only whispering, it felt as though she had been yelling. Ryuhou was stunned, and his grip weakened numbly. Her eyes began to fill with tears as she looked at him for the first time since she had arrived. Finally she pulled her wrist away and ran out of the door.

Shadows were covering Ryuhou's eyes as he thought about everything. He looked up to the invitation. "I won't go." 'Who are you trying to convince?' A voice in the back of his head asked. He replied with a grunt and sat in a chair next to the table. He leaned back to where the chair was on 2 legs and had his arms were folded stubbornly. "I won't go."

Mimori, meanwhile, had hailed a taxi and was already on her way to the party. Taking sheets that she had stuffed in the bag, she made four barriers so no one could see her. 'If I'm not ready by the time I get there, father will be worried… I've got to change in here! Changing as quickly as possible, she finally took the sheets down to reveal a very confused taxi driver looking into the mirror.

"…..Ma'am?" He asked, periodically averting his eyes to the road. "….Did you change?"

"Please don't worry about that! Just please get me to where I need to go!"

"Hai!" He concentrated on driving.

"Arigatou gozaimasu!" Mimori thanked him as she paid him. She turned from him to her father's estate. She went from a smile to a gradual frown. She took a deep breath and entered the gates.

"Hello Miss Mimori!" one of the maids smiled and bowed. "You look very beautiful! Your father is expecting you."

"Thank you, Yufumi-sama!" Mimori put on a half smile. She walked in to the dining room to find many older people already gathered there. 'No one my age…'

"Mimori! Good to see you!" Mr. Kiryu hugged his daughter.

"You too, Father!"

"So did Ryuhou decide not to come?"

"I… suppose not…" Mimori said softly. Her father could tell something was wrong.

"So how has it been at HOLY?" He asked, trying to change the subject.

"It's been good!" She lied and faked enthusiasm. 'Sorry Father…'

While her father went and attended the other guests, Mimori went into the kitchen. She had her arms wrapped around her legs as she put her forehead on her knees. Yufumi walked in and sat next to Mimori.

"What's wrong, Miss Mimori?" she asked. "You know, when you were younger after Mister Ryuhou left, you would sit in this very corner when you were sad."

"Is that right?" Mimori asked, trying to sound as alive as possible. "I forgot…"

"Believe in him, Mimori," Yufumi told her. Mimori was very shocked when she said that. Yufumi stood up and brushed herself off. She laughed. "Why do you look so surprised?" She asked. "You're eyes tell it all." With that Fuyumi left.

'Believe in him?' She repeated. 'Can I believe in him?' She hugged herself into a tighter ball and dug her head deeper into her legs.

Ryuhou was still staring at the invitation stubbornly. "I'm not going." He finally stood up and went to his room. He flicked the light on to see his closet cracked. After sliding it open, he noticed something he hadn't noticed before…

Mimori was on the verge of tears by now. "I want to go see him," Mimori whispered. "I still want to see Ryuhou!" Her head was cupped in her hands. "I want to know how he feels! I still want to be his friend! I still want to be…Miri…."Her body relaxed as she calmed down. "I can't go… I won't go…" 'I can't just stay in here sulking.' She stood up and brushed her dress off. 'It's okay as long as I can hold onto the memories…'

She went outside and greeted the other guests. She had cheered up a bit, but her mind was never off of him. 'So what if I'm living in the past?' She asked herself. 'Is that so wrong?' She wasn't paying attention and bumped into someone. "Gomen nasai!" she bowed politely. She was very surprised when the person bent down to her level and lifted her chin up to where they were eye to eye.

"Excuse me," he lifted up her head to where they were both standing straight again, "but you seem to be the only one here who's around my age." He was still holding her chin with his hand as he sincerely smiled at her.

Mimori was blushing a very deep shade of red, and her emotions finally rose until they tipped. "Ryu!" She hugged him with all her might, and yet, somehow, she still felt weak. That is, until, he hugged her back.

"Miri," He said seriously, "I'm…I'm really sorry."

"I knew you'd come! I guess you…found the tux I bought you while you were in the hospital…" She was tearing up; her emotions were getting the best of her. 'I knew because…because I believed in you…'

"Miri, you can't. Please don't cry, not here." His voice wasn't like the other times. It wasn't hurried, and it didn't sound high pitched or angry. In fact, his voice had a very calm tone in it. He put his hand on her head. "Not here." But this only made Mimori want to cry more.

"I don't think I can-"

"I believe in you," he said quickly. It was fast, the words almost mixed together, but Mimori understood it. She nodded her head slowly into his chest.

"Ah, Ryuhou!" Mimori's father now came into view. "I'm so glad you could make it!"

"Me too," He smiled as he and Mimori separated.

"You're looking after my daughter, right?"

"Hai. I along with other members of HOLY are all making sure that Mimori is safe."

"But how safe can you keep her?" All three of them turned around with determined looks on their faces…


	15. A Gift

Hi again! Here's the next chapter! Thanks for reading! I officially have more chapters than Card Captor Sakura!

Chapter 15- A Gift

They all turned around to find one of the guests speaking. He had a grin on his face and he held his hand in front of his eyes. "Lightning Shower!" He laughed softly. Objects dissipated as lightning fell from the ceiling. All of the other guests were now screaming while Mimori's father instructed them to go into a safer room.

"Mimori let's go!" He said. "Ryuhou can handle this!"

"But Father!" she protested. "I can't just leave him!" She took a step towards the Alter User and prepared to battle. Ryuhou put a hand on her shoulder.

"Mimori don't."

"But-"

"Is this really how you want your father to find out?" She got out of her fighting stance and looked away, shaking her head. "Go with him, I can do this on my own."

She reluctantly ran up the stairs to the 2nd floor and watched from above, holding tightly on the rail. "Are you sure that you want to stay?" her father asked. She nodded. "Then I'm staying with you."

"You should probably find a place to hide as well, I'll be fine here."

"No, I'm going to stay and protect my daughter."

'But…. It's going to be _me_ protecting _you_.' She thought as she looked at the glass ceiling.

"Zetsuei!" More objects disappeared as his Alter power appeared. "Go!" He extended his arm towards the Alter User. Zetsuei sent out his extensions to attack, but lightning fell once more from the ceiling, one striking Ryuhou, and a few concentrated bolts striking Zetsuei.

"Ryuhou!" Her grip around the rail tightened. "Zetsuei!" 'I have to help them!' She started to run down the stairs, but her father grabbed her arm.

"Mimori it's too dangerous!" He stated. "You have to stay here!" With her father holding her arm, she had no choice but to stay. She watched in pain as Ryuhou and Zetsuei were getting weaker. But they weren't going down without a fight.

'This is nothing!' Ryuhou told himself as he used his sleeve to wipe the blood off of his lips. 'Just one swift blow!' He prepared himself and Zetsuei. After dodging a few more attacks, he finally saw an opportunity. "Zetsuei!" Zetsuei flew quickly towards the Alter. However, lightning reigned down and formed a wall, which also shocked Zetsuei. "Just who are you and what do you want!" Ryuhou demanded.

"I am Masuto, and it's really quite simple what I want." He pointed to the second floor. "Her."

"Why do you want her?" Zetsuei transformed into his 2nd form.

Masuto laughed and waved his index finger. "Now now, that would be telling, wouldn't it?" This annoyed Ryuhou greatly.

Meanwhile, in the Lost Ground, Kazuma and Kimishima were laying on the ground relaxing.

"Man! I haven't felt this good in… I don't know how long!" Kazuma grinned. "I had to deal with that stupid Ryuhou, and then those stupid guys who attacked us, then Kanami had me stay home to recover… It's about time I got a break!"

"Yah, well you'll be on a break for a while, Masuto has everything covered," Kimishima said.

"Masuto?" Kazuma repeated, now looking at Kimishima for answers.

"Oh yah, he showed up while Kanami was tending to your wounds… Said something about getting some princess from the mainland."

Something inside Kazuma sparked. "…..A princess….?"

"Yah, he said he had been informed that there was supposed to be a big royal party and that lots of nobility was gonna be there. He left yesterday for the mainland."

'A princess…. No, it couldn't be!' Kazuma thought. He got up quickly. "Kimishima! Where's your jeep?"

Ryuhou breathed in. Everything inside him wanted to puke; his entire body was tingling, and he couldn't move very much anymore. Most of his senses were gone, and his reflexes were horrible as well. However, despite all that, he somehow focused his vision on Masuto.

"MOTTO!" Mimori screamed. Mr. Kiryu looked at her strangely, but after she said this, Ryuhou had Zetsuei attack. Masuto chuckled softly and easily evaded Ryuhou's attack. He carelessly sent another lightning bolt into Ryuhou's body.

"Khaaa!" Ryuhou winced in pain. He had blood filling in his throat and mouth. This wasn't new to Ryuhou, though. His head was splitting, his heart was hurting, and he was fighting the urge to pass out. 'I... don't have anything left… But I have to keep my promise to Miri!' He got an angry look on his face. "I will protect her, nomatter what! I won't let you touch her!"

Mimori was taken aback. Maybe it was the fact that he was fighting so hard, maybe it was the way that he said it; either way, her heart was throbbing. She turned her back to her father and let some tears flow down her cheek. She caught them with her hands and, making sure Mr. Kiryu wasn't paying attention, looked at the battle.

"This is it! It's been fun!" Masuto laughed viley as his eyes widened maniacally. He threw his arm down and one very powerful lightning bolt came hurling down at Ryuhou. Suddenly, a wall of fire stopped the bolt. "What the-?"

Ryuhou looked up to Mimori, who smirked, giving him a small thumbs up. Masuto was infuriated, his eyes widened after each attempt, and he would only get angrier as each attempt would fail. "WHAT IS THIS?"

"Something wrong?" Ryuhou asked smugly.

"I'm so close, I'm not going to let this stop me!" Looking as desperate as ever, Masuto's lightning bolts were no longer focused on one spot. He no longer cared where he hit; he figured that one of them would have to hit Zetsuei or Ryuhou. That was when Ryuhou heard it.

"AAHHHH!" Mimori had her head held towards the ceiling, eyebrows furrowed in pain as she hugged herself and fell to her knees. 'Is this what's been hitting Ryuhou continuously? And Zetsuei?' She thought to herself. The fire barrier that she had set up for Ryuhou was disappearing. Ryuhou fell onto the ground.

"Mimori!" Her father bent down. "Are you alright? We have to get you out of here!"

"No," Mimori protested, even though her voice was barely audible. She reached up with one hand and grabbed the rail. Using it for support, she shakily stood up. "I'm going to stay… by his side…" She said.

"C'mere, Princess…" He began to walk towards the staircase. Ryuhou weakly grabbed his ankle with both hands. Masuto looked down on him as if looking at an ant.

"Zetsuei… now!" Masuto motioned his hand downwards and Ryuhou was once again struck. Despite that, Ryuhou's grip actually tightened. "ZETSUEI!" He screamed with everything he had. Zetsuei advanced to Masuto and hit his stomach so hard that the force from it pushed Masuto into the wall near the staircase. Ryuhou grinned. "Heh…Baka…." However, Masuto stood up soon after recovering and, with one last bolt, Ryuhou's body shut down, and he passed out. 'Miri… I'm sorry…'

Masuto grinned and turned his attention from the fallen Ryuhou to the frightened Mimori. As he made his way up the stairs, Mr. Kiryu stood in front of his daughter with his arms outstretched. "What do you want with her?"

Masuto had made his way up the stairs and now glared at Mr. Kiryu. "If I wouldn't tell _him_, what makes you think I'd tell someone so weak as yourself!" He backhanded Mimori's father with electricity flying throughout his hand. The force not only sent Mr. Kiryu into the wall, but it successfully knocked him out. "Nowhere to run now."

'What do I do? I can't use Burning Tears, I don't have any energy left!' Mimori looked afraid. Masuto went to grab her hand, but she wasn't going to allow that. "Don't touch me!" She slapped his hand, and then she noticed that his hand sizzled.

"What is this?" Masuto asked himself aloud. His hand had burn marks where Mimori had slapped him. "You wench!"

"Back off!" She pushed him, and his clothes had holes where Mimori's hands had touched them. Mimori, too, looked at her hands. 'Why is it doing this? What's going on?'

"Look- PRINCESS," Masuto said angrily, grabbing her shoulders. He sent electrical jolts through her body, and her knees gave out. "You're COMING with ME!" He looked down and gulped nervously. 'Just gotta avoid those hands…"Mimori's eyes were glazed over, but her thoughts were still coherent.

'Touch his face…" She told herself. 'You've gotta touch his face…' Slowly, almost as if they weren't moving at all, her hands made their way up to his face, but he grabbed her wrists. She fell to her knees, only being held up by her wrists.

He sent another shock through her system, and her head slowly looked up at his. "Don't take me for a fool!" she stared at him blankly. He put her over his shoulder and began walking to the door. Someone on the other side of him, however, opened before he could.

"RYUHOU!" A blue haired girl shrieked. "ETERNAL DEVOTE!" Without a second thought, the girl put her hand through Masuto's stomach. The girl started breathing harder and lost her balance for a moment.

"MINORI!" A man with pink sunglasses averted his eyes to the motionless girl over Masuto's shoulders. The man ran and hit Masuto. Both he and Mimori fell and slid across the floor.

"Cougar! Watch what you're doing!" The girl said from Ryuhou's side. "Mimori fell too!"

"Sorry Scheris!" He scratched the back of his head.

"Don't apologize to _ME_!" Scheris yelled as she lifted Ryuhou to move him away from battle.

'Minori… sorry…' He looked to her. Her eyes were open, but he wasn't sure what she was looking at. In a strange way, she reminded him of how Ryuhou always used to look. He ran and picked her up. After moving her from battle, he instructed Scheris to stay with the two of them while he handled the Alter. "Heh, you must be pretty strong to have beaten Ryuhou!" Cougar smirked as he stretched. "This will be fun." After cracking his neck, his legs transformed. "Shocking first bullet!" He went down for the kick, but Masuto avoided it. 'He's doing very well, especially after Scheris used Eternal Devote on him!' After using his second bullet, Masuto still wasn't very damaged. Instead of trying to kick him, Cougar used his speed, but Masuto already had his Lightning Shower out. Although Cougar got 3 or 4 good hits in, Masuto used the time when Cougar was hitting him to gather one super powered jolt to shock. Cougar's glasses fell off and he fell to his knees.

"You know, you distractions are really getting on my nerves. Just why are you here anyway?"

Cougar smirked. "One of the guests called about a Native Alter, and we hurried over. Who would miss a chance to catch someone like you?"

"You will _never_ catch me!" Masuto had had enough, he sent one bolt after another into Cougar, until he was worse off than Mimori. He, like Ryuhou, passed out. Masuto was breathing hard, but that didn't stop him. He turned around and looked at Scheris with maniacal eyes. "You're turn." He laughed. Scheris shook her head slowly, and grabbed both Ryuhou and Mimori. She kept backing up until she tripped over her own feet and dropped both of them. She was on her hands and feet and still continued to back up until she was against the wall, leaving Mimori and Ryuhou a few feet in front of her. He stepped over Ryuhou and Mimori and was ready to attack Scheris. That is, until someone grabbed his ankles. He stopped and looked down to see Mimori's blank eyes and her hands burning through his pants to his ankles. "You never learn, do you?" He picked her up by the arm and threw her to the ground. "If only I wasn't instructed to keep you alive," He whispered.

"MIMORI!" Scheris shrieked hysterically. Masuto turned around to find that Scheris was charging towards him, and that he couldn't move out of the way. She rammed into him, and he fell to the ground. She ran to Mimori and picked her up. 'I've got to get you out of here!' Lightning came down just where Scheris was about to step, so she stopped a second before it his and avoided it. She turned around to look at Masuto. "Stay back!" she yelled, trying to sound tough. "Stay away from us!" Again he moved his hand down, and a bolt charged through Scheris. She lost her balance and fell, along with Mimori.

Just as he was about to finish Scheris, the glass ceiling broke above them. "SHOCKING FIRST BULLET!" Masuto narrowed his eyes. He barely dodged it. "So you're Masuto?"

"And you are?"

"Name's Kazuma, don't forget it!" He looked over to Scheris and Cougar. 'Onii-san…' Kimishima opened the door and ran in. "take these two back to HOLY!"

"Wha?" Kimishima asked, completely shocked. "Help them? Why?"

"Just do it!" Kazuma spat.

"But… I can't leave Ryuhou!" Scheris protested. "And Mimori!"

"Let me worry about that! Get Cougar and leave! NOW!" Scheris reluctantly agreed, and Kimishima helped her get Cougar into the jeep.

"See ya at Kanami's!" Kimishima sighed and took off for HOLY.

"That man, that's Kimishima, right?" Masuto asked. Kazuma grunted.

"Who cares?"

"He is from the Lost Ground; does that mean you are too?"

"WHO CARES?" Kazuma was getting angry.

"Then why are we fighting? We are brothers! Why not work together?"

"I've got one brother, and you've already beaten him! You're really starting to tick me off!" He ran to Masuto and prepared to hit him when he was struck. His eyes widened. "So this is what you can do… good, but it won't stop me!"

"You seem pretty confident!" he laughed. "But as you can see, your odds aren't looking too good. I've already taken out everyone else. Except that one." He pointed to Mimori. "But even though she isn't knocked out, she can't do much."

Kazuma looked at the fallen Ryuhou, got angry, then looked at Mimori and got even angrier. "NOW I'M REALLY TICKED!" He hit Masuto with everything he had, maybe more. Masuto was knocked back and wiped the blood off of his lips.

"What do you care about them?"

"I could care less if it was anyone else. But it's not. It's him and her."

"But these are your enemies as well."

"No, HE is my enemy! Mine and ONLY mine! And she…. I owe her a lot. No one is going to be taking her anywhere! She's the only one in HOLY who doesn't deserve this!" He hit Masuto once again, and now he and Masuto were on the ground, Kazuma ceaselessly hitting Masuto without any mercy. Masuto sent the lightning bolts down, but Kazuma only laughed. "See, I'm not like others, you can shock me all you want, I REFUSE to be beaten!" He used his second bullet, and, unlike with Cougar's second one, this one hit its mark. Mimori had crawled her way to the fallen Masuto and grabbed his hands.

"GAHHHHH!" Masuto couldn't use his Lightning Shower anymore, and Kazuma knew it.

"ANNIHILATING LAST BULLET!" Masuto passed out. Between the burning, Ryuhou's, and Kazuma's attack, he had nothing left. Kazuma bent down to where he could see Mimori's face better. "He really got you, huh? It's okay now, you can rest." As if in recognition of his remark, she nodded smally and allowed her eyes to close. He picked her up and moved the shattered glass from the ceiling with his feet. He placed her in the middle of the room. He walked to Ryuhou and placed him in the middle of the room as well. He laid them down to where Mimori was laying on her back with her legs closer to the left side of the room while Ryuhou was next to her, on his back with his legs closer to the right side of the room. Their heads, however, were turned to where they were facing each other. It was like a mirror, with him on one side and her on the other.

Kazuma then walked up the stairs to the sleeping Mr. Kiryu and placed him on the floor, lying on his back so he'd be more comfortable. He picked up Masuto and left…

Later, HOLY's doorbell rang, and one of the HOLY members answered it. He opened the door to find no one, but when he looked down, saw an unknown Alter with a note that said 'A Gift'. The HOLY member looked confused, and dragged the sleeping man in as he headed to get the Commander…


	16. Quitters and Losers

Yay chapter 16!! (Flails chibi arms) Again I am VERY VERY sorry for not updating, but I have gotten back (finally) to writing this story.

Chapter 16- Quitting and Losing

When Mimori and Ryuhou awoke, they were still in the main room, surrounded by glass and guests. Mimori was blushing because when she and Ryuhou opened their eyes, they noticed that their faces were mere inches from each other. 'He's so close…' Ryuhou, on the other hand, smiled smally, which only made Mimori blush deeper shades of red. She couldn't help but laugh. Ryuhou smiled wider, that is, until, he remembered what had happened. He sat up and looked around at the confused and relieved guests.

"Where's Masuto!?" He searched the room, but couldn't find him. "Mimori!" He turned his head to look at her. "Did he hurt you? What happened after I passed out?" He searched her eyes for answers. The way her eyes were kind of looking down told him that she had been hurt after he passed out, and this angered him. "What happened?" Mimori looked around at the other guests as she sat up.

"Oh!" Yufumi smiled. "You're both awake!" She wrapped her arms around both of their necks. She noticed that both of them were tense. "You guys look like you could use something to eat!" She helped them up and led them to the kitchen. She began to walk away when Mimori remembered.

"My father-!"

"He's upstairs resting. I've been looking after him, don't worry, Miss Mimori." Yufumi left. Mimori turned back to Ryuhou to find that he was avoiding her eyes.

"You never answered my question…" he said softly. "What happened after I passed out!?" He turned his head and looked at her in a way that made her freeze. His eyes seemed so full of emotion and loneliness that she was having a hard time trying not to hug him.

"I'm not sure…" She began. "After you passed out…" The memory replayed in her head. "That's right! After you passed out, he knocked out Father as well. He tried to touch me, but my hands would burn him. It was so strange… He got angry and shocked me til I couldn't move. Just as he was about to take me, Scheris and Cougar showed up. He beat Cougar… He was about to finish Scheris off too, but then…." Mimori trailed off.

"Then what?" Ryuhou asked.

"He came and saved me. He was so angry… I've never seen him so mad…Maybe all of it was a dream…"

"Who?"

"…Kazuma…" Ryuhou's eyes widened. He looked away.

"I see… " He hit his fist against the kitchen counter. "Why?" He whispered to himself. "Why could he beat him… and yet I couldn't? How did he save Mimori when I couldn't? Is he stronger than me?"

"No!" Mimori protested. "That's not it at all! Kazuma arrived after you, me, and Cougar had all hurt him! And besides… I chose to stay! No one forced me to!"

"All this time I thought I was getting stronger…was I fooling myself?" He mumbled.

"We need to get back to HOLY…" Mimori said to herself. "It's getting late…"

"You're right.," he agreed as he hid his insecurity.

They called a cab and arrived back at HOLY to find Cougar at the medical center. After spending the night in his room, they were summoned to capture some more Alters. Running on about 3 hours of sleep, they sadly got up and prepared to leave.

"So how many are there?" Ryuhou asked.

"Not many…" Mimori replied. "Between 5 and 10."

"I see. Then let's capture them and get back." He looked behind his shoulder to see the 5 HOLY soldiers that were accompanying them. "And just why are you coming with us, again?"

"Because we were told to."

'That's a great answer,' they both thought. "Ryuhou, there they are!" Mimori pointed. The Native Alters were all standing around. Mimori gave them a strange look. All of them were either old or young; none of them seemed to be in their 20s or 30s. What struck her even more was the look of fear that they all held when they noticed the vehicle.

"Let's go men!" The leader of the 5 soldiers instructed. They all jumped out of the vehicle and attacked the Alters.

"Are these really the Alters we're after?" Ryuhou asked as he heard the Alters screaming.

"It can't be…" Mimori said softly.

"Please, let us go!" they heard a tiny voice. Something sparked in both of them. They'd know that voice anywhere.

"Kanami!" They both ran out of the vehicle. One of the soldiers had Kanami on the ground with her hands behind her back. "What are you doing?!" Mimori demanded. "She's just a child!"

"She's an Alter, and we were ordered to capture them, child or not."

"But they aren't even doing anything! They aren't harming anyone!"

'Wait,' Ryhou thought, 'did he say that Kanami was an Alter User? It can't be!'

"Orders are orders."

"Forget orders! Let them go!" Mimori ran to the man and pushed him off of Kanami. The man got up, grabbed Mimori by the hair and slapped her so hard that she fell to the ground.

"Just who's side are you on?!" He demanded. He turned around to go back to Kanami. What he found, however, was a very angry Zetsuei and an even angrier Ryuhou.

"The side that's right." Ryuhou glared. "HOLY has become corrupted from the inside out. Does anyone even tell you what's going on within the corporation? Or do you just follow orders like a blind _dog_?"

"Ryuhou? What's gotten into you? Do you have any idea what you're doing? You realize you could be demoted for this, right?" The man asked.

"I've got no interest in HOLY, and I could honestly care less about my position. Ranks are no good if you hate the person who decides your status. HOLY isn't getting me any closer to my goal anyway. So move." Mimori looked at him in amazement and awe.

"Men!" All five of them pointed their guns at Ryuhou. They all shot at the same time, but a fire barrier formed around him.

"You won't lay a hand on him." Mimori's eyes glowed with fire and tears. "Leave us."

"MIMORI!" Mimori looked at him, but before she knew it, she felt a needle in her neck. One of the men had gotten behind her and shot some liquid in her. She fell to the ground again and the fire surrounding Ryuhou disappeared. He was shot with the same liquid, and both of them fainted. The last thing they heard was Kanami's scream.

Before they knew it, they woke up in a room they didn't recognize. "Where are we?" Ryuhou asked. It was then that he noticed that both of them were in chains. "What is this?!"

"This is your punishment," they identified this voice to be the Commander's, "for being disobedient, and you're lucky I'm being so lenient with you."

"Zetsuei!" Ryuhou shouted. Zetsuei didn't come.

"I've injected both of you with a substance that will temporarily void your Alter powers. Save your strength, you'll need it for your next mission."

"And just what makes you think that we're still with HOLY?!" Ryuhou demanded angrily.

"Because if you aren't then I'll kill you here and now."

"Do it. It's better than working here."

"I never thought I'd hear that from you, Ryuhou. And what shall we tell Mr. Kiryu when he finds out that Native Alters killed his daughter? Oh well, I'll think of something sentimental…" He pointed the gun at Ryuhou's forehead. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he felt something warm behind him.

'…Mimori?' He asked himself. 'This must be her second form…' Mimori's hair was glowing and her eyes still glowed, but he could see the iris and the pupil. Her outfit had changed to an elegant dress and, using her Alter, she concentrated fire onto the chains that bound her and easily freed herself. A tear fell from her cheek and she threw it at the gun. The Commander dropped it in pain and held his hand.

"You will die for what you've done!" Mimori said angrily.

"I don't think so," he said as a large group of HOLY soldiers got in front of him. They all had guns and shot, but Mimori's second form wouldn't allow this. She hurled flames at each of the liquid-filled bullets, but the liquid still spilled on her and got in her eyes, and she returned to her normal form. She fainted, and they shot Ryuhou again, but he too had become so angry that he was able to summon Zetsuei and avoid the bullet just in time. Zetsuei removed the chains from Ryuhou, and Ryuhou easily beat the HOLY soldiers.

"So is this what it's come to, Ryuhou?" the Commander asked. "After everything I've done for you?" Ryuhou gave him a stern look.

"You became my enemy the minute you did this to me and Mimori," was Ryuhou's reply.

"I see… So then you die here." Particles disappeared around them and both of their Alters increased. "Tell me Ryuhou," the Commander said while they were fighting, "why did Mimori change you? Why did you choose her side instead of mine? Together we could make this world so much better."

"Is that the truth? Or is that just what you've convinced everyone? You've been lying from the start! What is it you really want?!"

The Commander chuckled. "…To reach the other side, naturally. Mimori's Alter power really is extraordinary, don't you agree?" He muttered a few other things, things that no one but Ryuhou could hear.

"SHUT UP!" Zetsuei attacked him with full force. The Commander was injured, but he wasn't going to give up. No, he was far from it.

"If you don't give me what I need, then I'll force it from you!" He grabbed Mimori. Taking a knife from under his sleeve, he pressed it against her cheek. "The stomach, the heart, or the throat? You pick."

"I'LL KILL YOU!" More particles disappeared, and Ryuhou's body began to glow. The room began to glow white and Ryuhou grinned.

'Ryuhou…' He heard Mimori's voice in his head. 'Don't give it to him… I can hear Kanami's voice… She told me to tell you… she says don't show him… you must stop this now before he gets what he wants.'

'But what about you?'

'Just call my name, and I'll wake for you.'

'Promise?'

'Promise.' Ryuhou wasn't sure if he was going crazy, but he trusted her voice. He forced himself to stop, and both he and the room stopped glowing.

"Fool!" Commander said. He moved the knife to her throat and prepared to slice.

"MIRI!" he shouted. Immediately her eyes opened, and her hair turned to fire once more. Of course, the Commander was still holding her hair when this happened, and he fell back in pain.

"Ryu, we have to save her… she needs our help."

"But the Commander-"

"We'll deal with him later! She needs us now!" She returned to her normal form and stopped crying. Zetsuei broke them out of the room and they ran off, leaving the Commander to drown himself in his searing pain and broken pride.

Mimori fell in the hall. "Miri!" Ryuhou shouted. "Are you okay?!"

"Yah… I think that stuff is still inside me… You can go on without me, I'll catch up. Kanami needs us, so why don't you-"

"If you dare to even think I'm going to leave you here, then you don't know me at all! I'm not going to leave someone important to me! Come on." He picked her up bridal style and carried her to the room where the captured Alters were kept. "Do it, Zetsuei!" Zetsuei obeyed and shattered the wall into dust. They saw Kanami hooked up to a machine with her face contorted in pain. Zetsuei immediately released her and the other Alters who had been caught with her. Everyone ran out and Kanami walked up to Ryuhou and Mimori.

"Thank you, Ryuhou!" She smiled. "Where's Kazu-kun?" She asked.

"We're not too sure…" Ryuhou said. "We'll meet up with him when we get out of here."

"Hey!" they heard a shrill voice from behind them. "What makes you think you can leave without us?!" They turned around to find an angry Scheris with Cougar's arm around her to help support him.

"You're coming with us?" Ryuhou asked.

"And stay here to leave you alone with Minori?! Yah right!" Cougar said angrily.

"Even being with us won't help your chances," Ryuhou smirked. "And it's Mimori." Mimori's grip around Ryuhou's neck tightened. Her heart skipped and the blood was rushing to her cheeks.

"So are we gonna do this or what?" Scheris asked. They all nodded. Mimori removed one arm from around Ryuhou's neck so Kanami could squeeze her hand. As soon as they got near the exit, almost every HOLY member greeted them with Alters and guns.

"Retreat!" they ordered.

"Let me make this clear – we _are_ getting out of here - one way or another," Mimori said calmly. Somehow her voice seemed different; she had no kindness, and no fear towards these people. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and the minute they fell, they formed a fire that created walls on both sides and a path to the exit. Scheris and Cougar were very shocked.

'Mimori… an Alter User?!' Scheris asked herself. 'Impossible!' Nonetheless, they walked in the fiery path with Ryuhou, Mimori, and Kanami. All of the HOLY members were trying to shoot at them and use their Alter powers, but nothing was working. One Alter was able to get through, however, with his metal Alter power. He sent many spikes hurling towards them, and Ryuhou barely moved in time to keep Mimori from getting hit. He turned his head towards the Alter in anger. Zetsuei went and knocked the HOLY member out. They finally reached the exit, and the moment they did, Mimori set the exit on fire for none of them to ever return as allies of HOLY.


	17. Captured

Hi! really sorry I haven't been updating, anyways here's chapter 17!

Chapter 17- Captured

"So now what?" Scheris asked. "And Mimori, why are you still in Ryuhou's arms?" Scheris asked this in an annoyed tone. "I'm sure you've bothered him enough."

"She can't walk," Ryuhou replied. "And I really don't mind." Mimori smiled at him. He gave her a small smile, but this one held sadness in it. She gave him a confused look, and soon he smiled the way he usually did.

"Ryu…" She whispered.

"What is it?" He whispered.

"I have to pee…" He looked at her and wasn't sure if he should laugh or fall.

"You can't be serious…" She nodded in reply. He sighed. "We'll be right back." He carried her away from everyone else and sat her on the ground. "Just go and tell me when you're done…" When he heard her rise to her feet, he turned around and saw her standing right in front of him.

"What's wrong?" Mimori asked. "You've been different since we fought the Commander. Did you… not want… to fight him?" She felt herself get weak, and she began to fall. Ryuhou hugged her close to him so she wouldn't fall and she held onto his shoulders.

"That's not it at all…" he said softly. He felt a lump in his throat and he wasn't sure why. It hurt him, and he was afraid that if he dared to say anything more that he wouldn't have a voice to say it with. All he could do was hold her tighter.

"Ryu," Mimori said. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing…" Ryuhou said. 'I just want to kill the Commander… How dare he say that…' His thoughts were interrupted by Mimori's whimpering. "Miri?"

"Ryuhou… It hurts…"

"What are you talking about?"

"You're choking me…." Sure enough, he had his arms wrapped so tightly around her that she couldn't breathe. He thought about this for a moment, then smiled and laughed softly. His laugh got louder, and soon enough he was laughing so hard that his sides were hurting. Mimori, upon seeing this, laughed as well. Neither was quite sure why they were laughing, especially in their given situation, but they felt as though everything that they had been through was fading, just so long as they could keep laughing. But they both stopped soon, and everything flooded back.

"So," Mimori said, sitting on the ground, wrapping her arms around her bent knees, and staring and her shoes, "what do we do now?"

"I'm not sure," Ryuhou said, following suit. "I've never really had to make a decision like that; I always followed orders issued from HOLY. Strange, isn't it? I wonder why I even stayed…"

"Either way, that doesn't matter anymore. What's in the past stays in the past." Mimori smiled.

"You're wrong," Ryuhou said, cracking a grin and turning to face her. "Leaving something in the past isn't always a good thing."

"Hu?!" Mimori gasped, hitting her forehead as the realization dawned on her. "My tapes! They're still at HOLY!"

"Crap…mine too… and the pictures…"

"Pictures?" Mimori repeated. "The two you showed me that one time?"

"Yah, the pictures from that one time," Ryuhou laughed a bit, trying to figure out which unspecified 'one time' she was talking about.

"I don't care about the clothes or anything I have there, but there's no way they're getting my tapes!" Mimori stood on her feet and began walking in HOLY's direction.

"Wait!" Ryuhou rose to his feet and grabbed her arm. "You're in no condition to go!" Mimori looked away.

"As long as you're with me, I'll be fine."

"I won't!" Ryuhou said. "If you stay here, you'll be safe. I can fight without worry. Please, please Mimori, stay here."

"But you can't go alone!"

"Who says he'll be alone?" Mimori and Ryuhou turned around, immediately recognizing that voice. They turned around to find Kazuma, along with a purple-haired companion.

"Tachibana!" Ryuhou said in shock. "I heard that HOLY had removed you from the program; I didn't know you were out here! Why are you with Kazuma?"

"Did you leave too?" Tachibana Asuka asked. "I'm with him cause he said he was looking for a friend of his; I had nothing better to do. I didn't expect to find you guys here. Are you heading to HOLY?"

"Yeah. Kazuma, have you seen Kanami yet?"

"Yeah," Kazuma replied. "So we're trashing HOLY? Sounds like fun. I'm in. Just don't get in my way, you HOLY subordinate." He grinned.

"EX-HOLY subordinate." Ryuhou grinned as well. "And the same goes for you, you Native Alter User."

"Proud of it! And don't talk like you're so high and mighty, you're one too!" They both laughed. "You in, Tachibana?"

"Might as well, I do owe them, after all."

Ryuhou turned to Mimori. "We'll be back, I promise. The tapes too." The three of them walked off, leaving Mimori with a worried yet faithful look on her face. Mimori clutched her necklace.

It was only a little after they had lost sight of Mimori that a jeep pulled up beside them, smoke rising from the tires. "You know, Kazuma, you're one of the hardest people to find!" A man complained. "Hey! What're you doing with him?!" He demanded, looking at Ryuhou.

"He's with us, Kimishima. Give us a ride," Kazuma ordered.

"I'm not a dog, you know. Get in," he said despite himself. "So where're we heading?" he asked.

"To HOLY," Kazuma said simply. He was then hurled out of his seat from the force of the jeep stopping. "What kinda crap're you tryin' to pull?!" Kazuma demanded.

"Don't say 'to HOLY' so easily!" Kimishima yelled. "This is a serious thing! Why do you want to go there? Do you _want_ to get captured?!"

"I don't plan on getting captured. I just wanna kick the crap out of some HOLY snobs." Kazuma grinned. "That's why Tachibana and Ryuhou are coming too."

"You guys can call me Asuka," Tachibana said. Kimishima sighed and stepped on the clutch and gas. Some while later, they arrived in front of the headquarters.

"Just save me some," Ryuhou said. "There's something I have to do before that." Kazuma gave him a strange and questioning look, but he decided to shrug it off. So, while Kazuma and Asuka ran to kick some HOLY butt, he ran through the halls of HOLY, seemingly knowing where he was going. Finally arriving in front of a door, he opened it and turned on the light to his and Mimori's apartment. Nothing had been tampered with; everything was just as they had left it. 'Something's wrong… this isn't like HOLY… this isn't like the Commander… Something is wrong!' He ran to his room and flipped his mattress. All of the boxes had been opened, and one was missing. Running into Mimori's room, he looked around, but couldn't find her tapes either. Becoming frantic, Ryuhou threw pillows, sheets, and blankets onto the floor. "Where are they?!"

"Looking for these?" Ryuhou, recognizing the voice, turned around to face the Commander. In his hands, he held a box of the combined tapes of Ryuhou and Mimori and Ryuhou's precious pictures. Ryuhou also noticed that the Commander's left hand was bandaged.

"Give them to me," Ryuhou ordered. "Now."

"These are actually pretty interesting," the Commander said. "Now I see how she was able to use you to her advantage."

"No one's using anyone except you!" Ryuhou shouted. "Give me the tapes!"

"Come now Ryuhou, can't you see that she wants something from you? On another note, I'm not actually 'using' people; they're simply assisting me in my noble goal. With access to the Other Side, I can make a world without war and death. I'm giving you one last chance to come back to me. Agree, and I'll forget any of this ever happened."

Ryuhou put on a thoughtful expression and his eyes widened. "You're right, Commander," He looked down and walked slowly to the Commander. "I'm so ashamed, how could I ever betray you?" The Commander noticed a few drips of liquid fall to the ground and realized that Ryuhou was silently crying. "You're right, Sir." Ryuhou stood in front of the Commander with his eyes glistening and a look of sorrow on his face. "She does want something from me…"

"Don't worry, Ryuhou, I already said that I'd overlook your lapse in judgment. I'll even make you my par-!" His sentence was stopped by the blood that flowed from his mouth. Without warning, Ryuhou had quickly and silently summoned Zetsuei. One extension had gone through the Commander's stomach; the other had gone through his bandaged hand. He fell to his knees and dropped the tapes.

"Like I said," Ryuhou continued, wiping the fake tears from his eyes and bending down to pick up the tapes and pictures, "Mimori does want something from me. I'm just sorry I betrayed her and couldn't give it to her sooner. Oh wait… did you think I was directing my apology to you? Baka…. No one would _ever_ apologize to you. Oh and by the way, when Mr. Kiryu finds out about you're real intentions, you can kiss HOLY goodbye."

"I'm not…" The Commander said softly, gasping for air, "the only one you can't trust…" The Commander grinned. "I wasn't lying when I told you-!"

Again, the Commander had been pierced through the stomach. Ryuhou looked down at him as if he were a disgusting bug. "You talk too much, shut up." Zetsuei made a clean sweep across the commander's neck. Ryuhou looked at the beheaded corpse and walked slowly out of the room to look for Asuka and Kazuma. Arriving in the HOLY kitchen, he came across his two comrades, both of which had a pile of unconscious HOLY members circling around them. Ryuhou looked around, and saw no one else. He gave Asuka and Kazuma a dull look.

"I _thought _I had said," he began, trying to sound as little irritated as possible, "to _save_ me some…"

"Eh," Kazuma shrugged. "You took too long."

'Must… restrain myself…..' Ryuhou thought, losing his composure from annoyance. 'Self-control is the key… Deep breaths…' "…What does taking too long have to do with you being greedy!?" he demanded, unable to contain himself.

"Greedy?!" Kazuma repeated. "Well, when they're all fighting back it's hard to ask a few to hang on until you get here, now isn't it!?"

'….Are these two really on the same side?' Asuka asked himself mentally as he watched the two argue.

The quarrel was soon ended, however, for they heard footsteps coming towards them. It sounded like someone was running, then stopping briefly, then running again. "Here you go, crybaby," Kazuma whispered. Ryuhou hit him in the back of the head. Kazuma was going to return the favor when Asuka pulled both of them behind a table. Holding their breaths, they prepared to pounce whoever it was that was coming towards them. Just before the figure appeared, they all summoned their Alters and surrounded the enemy. All of them immediately recognized the person to be Kimishima and relaxed.

"Geez… you go to check on the people you think are your friends and they greet you with deadly Alters!" Kimishima said.

"Well, either way we got what we came for, so let's go." They began walking out of the kitchen when, from another entrance of the kitchen, they heard a metal clank. Without looking back, they all knew someone had cocked a gun. Many more clanks ensued, and Kazuma glared at Kimishima.

"Kimishima," he said with a deadly voice. "Were you _followed_?" Kimishima shook his head.

"Surrender!" One of the gun holders said. "By order of HOLD, you Native Alter Users!"

"Why is HOLD interfering in HOLY's affairs?" Ryuhou asked calmly, not looking back at them.

"It was requested by Commander Martin Zigmar earlier today! Now hands up!"

"He knew we were coming," Ryuhou said softly. 'A liar to the end…' A disgusted look crept its way across Ryuhou's face. "Kazuma," he looked at Kazuma and then looked at Kimishima. Kazuma nodded, and then nudged Asuka and followed suit.

"Kimishima," Kazuma whispered, "where's the jeep?"

"Around the block to the right," he replied.

"Did you get that?" Asuka nodded. Particles disappeared, and eight green balls floated to Kimishima.

"Whatever you do, don't let go!" Asuka said. "They'll take you right to it!"

"What are you doing?!" The HOLD officers demanded. "FIRE!" They shot their guns, and Zetsuei and Kazuma blocked them.

"Kimishima!" Ryuhou ran to him and handed him the tapes. "Take these to Mimori!" Kimishima nodded, and the floating balls carried Kimishima out of the window and around the block.

"So when are we leaving?!" Kazuma asked. "These bullets aren't easy to fend off, you know?!"

"We're not," Ryuhou said, walking to Kazuma's side. Zetsuei disappeared, and Ryuhou put his hands in the air. Kazuma's eyes widened.

"What are you thinking?! We can take them out easily! They're not even Alter Users!"

"Exactly, we have nothing against HOLD. It's HOLY we're after. If we fought them, we'd be no better than HOLY."

"When you put it that way….." Kazuma sighed. His arm returned to normal, and he put his hands up. Although he didn't know what was going on, Asuka did the same.

"You better have a plan after this," Kazuma muttered. He looked at Ryuhou's eyes, but his expression was unreadable.

There's the end of chapter 17!!. Again, really sorry!! I know it wasn't very good and I know that I haven't updated in a while… Gomen!!


	18. I've Got You

Well, I hope you liked the last chapter! Here's 18!!

Chapter 18 – I've Got You

While they were getting handcuffed, Kazuma was glaring at Ryuhou. "Listen," he spat. "I'm all for not attacking these guys, but why don't we just use our Alters and get out of here?" Ryuhou glared back.

"Just shut up and trust me," Ryuhou whispered back.

"Kinda hard to trust something when you don't know what it is."

"Just trust me, I've got a plan," he grinned. That grin gave Kazuma a bit of confidence and they stepped into the back of the truck. 3 guards followed them into the back and locked the door.

"So what are you planning?" Ryuhou asked.

"Whatever Commander Zigmar orders," one of the guards answered.

"I see… so you're no different than HOLY. Afraid to tell you, but-"

"Oi!" The guards in the front yelled. "They just found Commander Zigmar's body at HOLY headquarters!" The three in the back turned their heads to the three Alter Users. Asuka and Kazuma looked at Ryuhou too, who said nothing.

"Oh, you're good," Kazuma chuckled. "Getting onto _me_ for being stingy on the small fry when _you_ took out the big fish all by yourself!?"

"It was a personal matter; I wouldn't have been able to get my revenge if you had been involved."

"Fine… but you better let me have the next one!"

"Fine!"

The guards, who had been in shock from Ryuhou's admittance to being Zigmar's murderer, finally built up the courage to speak. "O-Oi!" they yelled. "One of these Natives just confessed! We got the murderer here right now!"

"….Kill him," the guards in the front responded. The three guards aimed their cocked guns at Ryuhou, who simply glared. They gave him a confused look.

"Draw your Alter!" they ordered. Ryuhou shook his head. "BRING OUT YOUR ALTER!!" Ryuhou shook his head with as much calmness as before. They looked at each other, then lowered their guns. "We'll let the executioner of HOLD do it…" They sat back down again. "I can't shoot someone who isn't armed…" One said, looking at his shoes. "Are you really his killer?" he asked, lifting his head to meet Ryuhou's eyes.

Ryuhou's glare turned deadly. "What do _you_ think?" The guard's eyes widened and he resumed looking at his shoes.

A few hours passed before they finally entered HOLD headquarters. Reporters swarmed the vehicle like flies to watermelon as they unloaded the three Native Alters they had caught. Neither they nor the guards would reply to any of their questions; instead, they ignored them and looked straight ahead at HOLD's entrance. "They will be out tomorrow to answer your questions, for now, please leave," one of them finally answered. They disappeared behind HOLD's entrance and let the tall doors close with a thunderous boom as they left the reporters behind.

Meanwhile, Kazuma had arrived on the Lost Ground where Kanami, Mimori, and Scheris had been waiting worriedly. "Kimishima!" Kanami ran to him. "Where's Kazu-kun?" Kimishima looked at her, then grabbed a box from the passenger seat of his Jeep. Walking past Kanami, he held the box out to Mimori.

"From Ryuhou," he said solemnly. Mimori's gaze was transfixed on the box.

"What… is this?" Mimori asked, putting on an unsure smile. "Where's Ryuhou? Why isn't he giving this box to me?" Before she had realized, tears had welled up in her eyes, and her vision was blurry. After blinking a few times, the tears overflowed and fell down her cheeks, causing a few small fires that burned the ground around her. Why was it that this box that she and Ryuhou had been so determined to get only made her sadder? "Where's Ryuhou…?" She looked beyond Kimishima to his Jeep and found it empty. Still not wanting to believe it, she walked over to the Jeep and leaned over to look inside. Empty. She turned to Kimishima. "Tell me where he is…"

"I… don't know where any of them are." All three girls looked at him.

"What do you mean?" Scheris asked.

"The last time I saw them, a bunch of HOLD members had their guns pointed at us. Asuka used his Alter to get me to the Jeep. I stayed for a while to wait for them. I thought they were going to be right behind me and we were gonna gun it… But…" He looked down. "I don't know…" He clenched his fist. "Ryuhou told me to give that box to you, and that was it."

"What do we do now…?" Scheris asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Cougar, who had just awoken from his sleep, replied. "We go get them back."

"Then let's-!"

"No." Everyone looked at Mimori, whose bangs were covering her eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Scheris asked. "Have you lost it?"

"We can't go. If we do, we'll only get in the way."

"But we can help!"

"No we can't! Look at us! Cougar and I don't have any energy, your Alter takes up most of your energy on one attack, and Kanami and Kimishima aren't even Alter Users! None of us are fit to fight beside them."

"But what if they're dying?! Can you still say that?!" Scheris demanded.

"They're not," Mimori said softly, holding her necklace gently.

"She's right," Kanami agreed, putting her hands over her heart.

"How can you be so sure?"

"I can feel it," both of them replied. The other three looked at them strangely.

"I still say we should go…" Scheris sighed.

"Nope!" Kimishima smiled. "I've seen what that one can do!" He pointed to Mimori, and his smiled changed to a scared grin. "What she says goes!" Scheris put her head in her hands in defeat.

Ryuhou, Kazuma, and Asuka had all been placed in different cells with maximum security. Normally, Native Alters were HOLY's affairs, but with HOLY's current condition, HOLD had no choice but to take on the responsibility. Ryuhou sat in his cell staring at the walls. There was no window for him to look at; that would give him an easy way to escape. It was the same with the other cells in the maximum security division. He had been staring for an hour, maybe a few more. He had no idea how long he had been in there, but that didn't matter to him, for he was immersed in his own thoughts. Looking back, after everything he had been through, how much closer had he become to his revenge? Sure, Zigmar had served as a checkpoint in his goal, but beyond that, he had no idea where the man in black and white was, or how exactly to defeat him. "Am I strong enough yet?" He asked himself. He tried to answer the question logically, but couldn't think of an answer. He asked the question again. After asking himself this question, 2, 10, maybe 100 times, he laid back and looked at the ceiling, which looked no different than the wall. "Definitely…" He finally answered. "I know I can… Because… My feelings are strong enough, right Miri?" He closed his eyes and thought back to just before Mimori had moved.

_Mimori and Ryuhou had gone back to the place where Ryuhou had given Mimori the necklace. "This will be the last time I get to see this place… won't it, Ryu?" She asked sadly._

_"No it won't!" he replied, giving her a serious look. "You'll come back here for sure! I'll come steal you if I have to!"_

_Mimori laughed. "But then you'd get arrested, Ryu!"_

_"No I wouldn't! That's only if you steal someone who doesn't want to be stolen! And besides… even if I did it'd be okay!"_

_"Why do you say that?"_

_"Because I have you!" He grinned, trying to look confident, but he couldn't hide the blood rushing to his cheeks. "I'm sorry," he said politely. "That was-"_

_"It made me happy," Mimori smiled. "And besides, I know you'd be able to get me and get away from the police!"_

_"How?" He asked, finally turning to look at her with his red face. What he turned around to find was that Mimori had put her hand over his heart._

_"Because your feelings are strong enough, aren't they?" She asked. He nodded slowly. "Then that's all you need to make it," she smiled as her face turned red as well. They stayed quiet for a moment before Mimori breathed in. "And, if nothing else, you could always use Zetsuei to get away!" she laughed, breaking the silence. Ryuhou laughed as well, and they momentarily forgot the sadness that had previously surrounded them._

Ryuhou laughed in his cell, making the guards outside wonder what he could be doing that was making him laugh. The peered inside to find him lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling. The guards looked at each other and gave each other unsure grins. "Maybe he's losing it…" One said. "I wouldn't doubt it…" replied another. "I wonder if the other two have cracked yet."

"RAAHHH!!" Kazuma yelled, punching the wall and making his guards cock their guns. "I can't stand this!" He complained, running his hands back and forth through his hair in frustration. "Everything's the same! I can't tell the difference between any of the walls or even the ceiling!" He looked up, and then began to chuckle. He then looked at the door, which was only noticeable by the small line of light that was coming through it. "This is what you want, isn't it?!" he gave the door a deranged grin. "ANSWER ME!"

Asuka had been quiet for hours, which almost made his guards worry that he had somehow escaped silently. They too peered in to see what the prisoner was up to only to find him glaring back. "What do you want?" he asked, and they shut the door quickly. Through the door, Asuka heard them say, "If looks could kill….!", and then grinned. He leaned his head against the wall and sighed, thinking back to what Ryuhou told them when they were first captured. 'What are you planning?' he asked mentally.

'Just a little longer,' Ryuhou told himself, sitting up on the edge of the bed and resting his elbows on his knees. 'If they're so much like HOLY, then it won't be too much longer…'

Kazuma, during this time, had given up on getting an answer from the door. He sat in the same position that Ryuhou was in as he began thinking. 'It's just like the cellars in HOLY… Too bad I don't have Mimori here to bail me out again,' he laughed. 'That was the first time I experienced Ryuhou's Alter…that night…wait!' His back, which had been hunched, stood up straight. He then grinned from ear to ear, then resumed the position he had been in before coming to the epiphany.

Asuka looked around his room, still wondering what Ryuhou was planning. "I wonder if the cells at HOLY look like this… No wonder Kazuma's so crazy; I would be too if I had to stay in a cell like this… and not to mention then…then!" His eyes widened, and he too grinned and relaxed. He now sat in the same position as the other two. "So that's how it is…"

Yay!! Done with chapter 18!! Hope you liked it, sorry it sucked . But don't worry! 19 will (hopefully) be good!


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